I just finished watching the documentary Under the Dome considering the crisis facing the Chinese people, and really the entire world which is the wide range of air pollution poisoning the people living in China. China has had the fastest growing economy in the last decade. And with any growing economy comes a great amount of industrialization. For decades, China has increased its production and use of Oil and Coal, and this is on the rise in the form of vehicle usage as well. Why is this a problem? Well, studies have shown a direct correlation between the levels of pollutants found in the air with the amount of hospital visits and deaths related to lung cancer and respiratory problems. This is in part due to the increased amount of what is known as black carbon forming in the air. Attaching themselves to this black carbon is a wide range of highly carcinogenic pollutants that people breath in each and every day.

The creators of such pollutants are from the burning of oil and coal, (65% are from oil and coal).IF these fuels combine, it forms even more dangerous chemicals in the smog flooding the Chinese environment. Over the last few decades, the amount of lung cancer related deaths has increased by 465%, a terrifying statistic to consider when considering the amount of coal and oil burned in china itself. In fact, china burns approximately 50% of the worlds coal and oil, being the leading cause of pollution in the world.

The health concerns are tragic, if china hope to effectively combat the increasing presence of pollutants in their country, they need to take drastic measures that with current technology would both help their economy and save their people from this self-destruction. China ought to learn from their predecessors such as the UK, the United States and the rest of Europe, and do what they can to save their environment and their people by eliminating the sources of these pollutants across their country.