Another city
This blog is normally just about London, but this post is about Guangzhou in China (sometimes known as Canton). I've just got back from a trip there and I was astounded. I've never been to such a polluted city before. We actually walked around with hospital masks on to try to reduce block some of the pollution from getting at our delicate London lungs. This might sound like overkill (and believe me, we felt incredibly stupid), but the impact of the air quality on our breathing was immediate and obvious. Just before we went out there, there was the big story about Haile Gebrselassie pulling out of the Beijing Olympic Marathon because of his fears of the air quality. I don't know about Beijing, but after visiting Guangzhou, there's certainly no chance of finding me running outside there.
Guangzhou is in Southern China in the province of Guangdong, which, for various reasons, including its proximity to Hong Kong, is heavily industrialised. Guangdong churns out huge amounts of world's 'stuff'. I guess we should remember that when we call upon China to reduce their pollution problem - essentially they're responding to the world's desire to consume more and more. Sure China has to clean up, but there must be a responsibility for us to consume less as well - although I'm sure not many people see it that way. It's easy to criticise a developing country (as China is, in many ways) when they have all the factories for the products you use, and they end up taking the rubbish and recycling you throw away.
However, what really made me want to blog was this bus (or rather, the many many buses all over Guangzhou just like it). Look at the little badge on the side - yup, that's an LPG sticker. In the midst of all of the manic GZ traffic, and feeling like we were on a set for Bladerunner, here was a bus which was running off LPG (liquified petroleum gas). I'm not sure whether it was irony, but it was certainly amusing.
While LPG is by no means a wonderful sustainable fuel, it is certainly a good alternative to petrol - and has a major benefit of being a byproduct of the oil and gas industry. Which means that it's 'recycling' of a sort. In Hong Kong, all the cabs run on LPG. In London, a bunch of cabs use it these days. You can also convert most petrol cars to use it. Anyway, it was a small glimmer of hope in an overwhelming mega-city.
Guangzhou is in Southern China in the province of Guangdong, which, for various reasons, including its proximity to Hong Kong, is heavily industrialised. Guangdong churns out huge amounts of world's 'stuff'. I guess we should remember that when we call upon China to reduce their pollution problem - essentially they're responding to the world's desire to consume more and more. Sure China has to clean up, but there must be a responsibility for us to consume less as well - although I'm sure not many people see it that way. It's easy to criticise a developing country (as China is, in many ways) when they have all the factories for the products you use, and they end up taking the rubbish and recycling you throw away.
However, what really made me want to blog was this bus (or rather, the many many buses all over Guangzhou just like it). Look at the little badge on the side - yup, that's an LPG sticker. In the midst of all of the manic GZ traffic, and feeling like we were on a set for Bladerunner, here was a bus which was running off LPG (liquified petroleum gas). I'm not sure whether it was irony, but it was certainly amusing.
While LPG is by no means a wonderful sustainable fuel, it is certainly a good alternative to petrol - and has a major benefit of being a byproduct of the oil and gas industry. Which means that it's 'recycling' of a sort. In Hong Kong, all the cabs run on LPG. In London, a bunch of cabs use it these days. You can also convert most petrol cars to use it. Anyway, it was a small glimmer of hope in an overwhelming mega-city.
posted by JT at
15:28
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