China showed it's possible to beat down extreme local pollution by actually lowering pollution, as opposed to exporting it. The idea that China is a stuck hellscape does not hold up.

Data was supplied by the WEF but gathered from the Beijing government: https://centres.weforum.org/ce... The improvements are also visible with independent AQI monitoring data, so we know this isn't a fake improvement. There are many maps of that data available online.

@cremieuxrecueil Almost all the vehicles in Beijing are electric, makes it super quiet and quite pleasant. Trucks are required to do all deliveries at night. It's still huge, overbearing, and unpleasantly modern, but much better than it was. (these impressions as of April 2024)

@cremieuxrecueil Similarly, Los Angeles beat smog between 1975 and perhaps 1995. It's one of the great successes of environmentalists that they don't celebrate often enough.

@cremieuxrecueil They do both, though. China has had a *gigantic* base of electric busses operating in its cities for going on a decade now. According to Grok they have over 99% of the world’s total, with a combined battery capacity of…. 125,000 GWh!

@cremieuxrecueil They made more progress in 24 months than LA made in 50 years.

@cremieuxrecueil We need more news cycles dedicated to positive things like this. Too many people hear the bad news then and never hear that it gets fixed

@cremieuxrecueil Air quality still sucks in the winter… this was in Nov when I was there on the way from Beijing to Xian

@cremieuxrecueil They achieved this by moving many of the factories to Manchuria so that the wind blows the pollution down the Korean peninsula instead.

@cremieuxrecueil 👍👍👍

@cremieuxrecueil @chainlank points to the sign

@cremieuxrecueil I miss the dome. They need some nostalgia days.

@cremieuxrecueil That's why I don't agree when I hear that they face a demographics issue... Westerners are projecting the same problem they faced unto China when in reality the factors are different. China will just put policies, whatever is required, to fix the problem

@cremieuxrecueil Do you know how they did it ?

@cremieuxrecueil I got to see this first hand in 2018 when I visited. There was still definitely haze based on the day, and there was a lot of soot on things, but it was *far* better than I had seen in photos and videos from prior years.

@cremieuxrecueil I studied abroad in Hong Kong in 2016. Could easily tell whenever a classmate took a weekend trip to Beijing — they came back with a deep lung cough that lasted for a week or two. I don’t think think I’ve ever coughed like that, before or since

@cremieuxrecueil they just exported the factories to places in hebei, with a 50km circle around beijing. if the wind shifts it still gets very bad

@cremieuxrecueil I remember going to Beijing in the 90’s and I asked the person driving me from the airport to the hotel if there was a fire and they laughed at me. It’s like night and day how much Beijing has improved.

@cremieuxrecueil lol, and they are now spraying sulfur dioxide in the skies in CA, SO2. Yeah, the same stuff they terrorized the world about in the 80’s for causing acid rain. Frauds.

@cremieuxrecueil What about the other 99% of cities?

@cremieuxrecueil Sure, but China still has lots of work to do

@cremieuxrecueil So true. Still remember buying air purifier back in 2014 but not using that at least for last 6-7 years. Today was a beautiful sunny and warm day. Took some pictures during morning walk.

@cremieuxrecueil The factories have been relocated. That is nice for the people in Peking, no doubt.

@cremieuxrecueil Remember China was the biggest pollutant in the world? That's basically even worse now. Since 2013, the population is down 50%, yet just since 2022 coal power plants increased 50% as well.

@cremieuxrecueil Cities in China are 100x better than Dubai.

@cremieuxrecueil It was so bad when I went there in 2014. Incredible how they've fixed it in such a short time. Kudos.

@cremieuxrecueil China's goal is 100% green energy by 2060, but it looks like they'll get there sooner. Plus, after years of R&D, the cost of solar energy is cheaper than fossil fuels. https://rumble.com/v5hjo9p-sol...

@cremieuxrecueil Most of the media reports Americans were shown about this werent smog but occured during the annual early spring dust storms that originate in the Gobi. Those are natural, theres no stopping them.

@cremieuxrecueil I was last there in 2017 and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected—quite a few blue sky days.

@cremieuxrecueil Some crazy good things happening in China. Hope they can keep the momentum up.

@cremieuxrecueil Wdym. Aren't they increasing their coal infrastructure and doesn't coal burning create smog

@cremieuxrecueil That’s incredible. I was there in 2015 and it was like living in a forest fire without the heat

@cremieuxrecueil glad we shipped all our manufacturing over there

@cremieuxrecueil Westerners really need to update their priors here

@cremieuxrecueil I was under the impression they just moved the coal plants elsewhere and made pollutions the problem of one of their less visible districts.

@cremieuxrecueil Beijing as a Potemkin Village?