Does Pollution in HK Worry You?

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  1. #21

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    I just asked my husband to make sure pregnancy brain wasn't making me confused, but yes, this Saturday on mt. davis in pok fu lam was gorgeous. maybe the smog settled a little east of us?


  2. #22

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    [QUOTE=mjk;18246 Our lungs felt like we smoked a pack of cigarettes.
    [/QUOTE]

    Which is why I don't notice the pollution...I always feel like I have smoked a pack of cigarettes (because I have). Perhaps the HK gov't should encourage smoking so people to stop them complaining about the pollution?


  3. #23

    Of course it bothers me - but in reality we are limited by what we can do.

    I really don't need to point out the fact that most of this smog comes from across the boarder in Guangdong and produced in cheap coal burning factories/power plants. No matter how hard some protest the HK government would never in a million years take this matter seriously to Beijing. And the locals have learn to live with it and none seem too bother by it (from what I gathered).

    I used to really worry about it. But then I made of choice of staying here so I am now trying to cope with it. At least it gives me more of an excuse to not go jogging outside....


  4. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by mjk:
    A
    Do I know you? Sounds exactly like my group...
    Probably not. We were out cycling. I had to lend my asthma medicine to a couple of people who'd never had to use it before.

    From sea level, you couldn't see the tops of the hills. So yeah, pollution was pretty heaving where we were.

  5. #25

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    Hey Boris I live in the NT but it is a big place. Sai Kung way is a little better but I have tried to escape out there without success some days. I live in Sham Tseng and look right at the Tsing Ma Bridge - at a guess it is 2-3 kms away uninterrupted but alot of days we can barely see it and Saturday was like that.

    I do know what a heat haze is and this whiteout was not it. I didn't take any pictures but I will next time and you can see for yourself. On Saturday the pollution index was 144. At 100 you are advised not to go outdoors.

    Last week I was in Thailand, and came back on a clear day. As we approached HK the air got dirtier and looking down you could just see a layer of brown. That is smog!


  6. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Importman:
    Of course it bothers me - but in reality we are limited by what we can do.

    I really don't need to point out the fact that most of this smog comes from across the boarder in Guangdong and produced in cheap coal burning factories/power plants.
    "The good news is a lot can be done, locally and across the border. However, far-sighted, determined action over a sustained period is required. What people demand today is a clearly articulated broad strategy on how to attack the problem, and then for those who are responsible to get on with it.......

    The land-sea breeze mixes the regional and local emissions together to produce dense regional smog. Studies show emissions from Shenzhen and Dongguan have the highest impact on Hong Kong due to the proximity and prevailing winds....

    Hong Kong is the largest source of outside investment in Guangdong's manufacturing sector. There are 53,000 to 70,000 Hong Kong-owned and managed plants in Guangdong.

    Manufacturing accounts directly and indirectly for two thirds of all the coal burned in Guangdong, one third of all the fuel oil, and uses 90 per cent as much diesel as transport.

    No solution to the very serious problem of Hong Kong's air pollution "imports" from across the border can be found without a major drive by Hong Kong owners and managers. " - Christine Loh April 2006 (http://www.cleartheair.org.hk/basics.htm#Problems)

    These HK owned and managed factories have offices and residences here so accessing them is not so difficult. These owners and managers need to be targeted and presented with a business model demonstrating the return that can be seen on the bottom-line.
    Last edited by Alby; 10-10-2007 at 08:50 PM.

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alby:
    These HK owned and managed factories have offices and residences here so accessing them is not so difficult. These owners and managers need to be targeted and presented with a business model demonstrating the return that can be seen on the bottom-line.
    That will be the only way, on both sides of the border.
    People power is nice, but neither of these governments really has to spend much time listening to the people. Honestly, both countries are over populated and will have a problem if the elderly all survive for 100 years; so I believe the governments both think the sooner and more often the peasants die, the better.
    And I doubt that business model/plan you refer to really exists.

  8. #28

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    on another note - taiwan has fined a shop selling stinky tofu for air pollution. perhaps hk's stinky tofu sold on the streets should be next on the monitor list too.

    TAIPEI: It sizzles, it looks appetising, and more importantly, it stinks.

    Smelly toufu is a popular snack in Taiwan - one that most locals adore, and tourists to Taiwan are invariably urged to try out the snack. There is even a common belief that the more smelly the tofu is, the better the taste.

    However, one vendor has attracted the "smell police" for fouling the air.

    The tofu made and sold by one vendor in Hsin Chuang City has drawn brickbats. Neighbours complained that his version of the tofu was so stinky that it amounted to air pollution.

    They brought their case to Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency, which conducted a check on the shop and found that on a scale of ten, the shop fell way off the line.

    "The stink level of this shop is 30, way above the permitted level of 10," said an agency officer. "Therefore, we're imposing a fine on the shopowner for polluting the air."


  9. #29

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    Reminds me of New Zealands Farting Cows tax.


  10. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sleuth:
    And I doubt that business model/plan you refer to really exists.
    It all has to begin somewhere and with somebody...

    There are a few businesses out there in the region that have taken action however, they are the pioneers and their impacts are minimal to the larger situation but greater to their own -business models- of course their actions are not the type that receive all the publicized hype.

    Ironically, these businesses also tend to be educated overseas and the second or third generation to run the business.