This is a story that shows how deliriously capitalist China has become (for good and bad). Rapid industrialisation has covered northern China in a dense pea soup of toxic chemicals. In the past, the old fashioned communist solution might have been either to ignore the problem or, if people insist on dying, organise the entire country in a “popular war on bourgeois toxins.” But in a post-Mao order, how does China’s elite deal with pollution? Yuppie consumerism.
Chen Guangbiao, an entrepreneur worth $740 million (how, why, and would he like to meet my daughters?) has started selling cans of fresh air for people to crack open and suck in. They go for 5 yuan each and, according to one report, they come with atmospheric flavours including “pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan'an.” Presumably the “pristine Tibet” can smells ever so slightly of gunpowder.
The story tells us two things. First, the price of China’s rapid development is that it now has to cope with the same problems that beset the already developed world. It’s good, because it means people are getting richer. But it’s bad because it means the country is experiencing what London went through in the 1950s as the industrial landscape coughs up its blackened lungs. According to the BBC, Beijing has reported air quality readings that show pollutants present at 20 times the recommended limits; visibility has been reduced and residents have been advised to stay indoors. Prosperity creates its own kinds of poverty. Full story...
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Chen Guangbiao, an entrepreneur worth $740 million (how, why, and would he like to meet my daughters?) has started selling cans of fresh air for people to crack open and suck in. They go for 5 yuan each and, according to one report, they come with atmospheric flavours including “pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan'an.” Presumably the “pristine Tibet” can smells ever so slightly of gunpowder.
The story tells us two things. First, the price of China’s rapid development is that it now has to cope with the same problems that beset the already developed world. It’s good, because it means people are getting richer. But it’s bad because it means the country is experiencing what London went through in the 1950s as the industrial landscape coughs up its blackened lungs. According to the BBC, Beijing has reported air quality readings that show pollutants present at 20 times the recommended limits; visibility has been reduced and residents have been advised to stay indoors. Prosperity creates its own kinds of poverty. Full story...
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