November 4, 2004

Great moments in Fire Fighting

From BBC News: bq. 130-year-old Chinese fire put out A fire that broke out more than 100 years ago at a Chinese coalfield has finally been extinguished, reports say. bq. In the last four years, firefighters have spent $12m in efforts to put out the flames at Liuhuanggou colliery, near Urumqi in Xinjiang province. And the pollution from this: bq. The burning coal emitted 100,000 tons of harmful gases - including carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide - and 40,000 tons of ashes every year, Mr Hou told Xinhua. China burns a lot of coal for general energy and as a developing nation, they are free to do this without any of the environmental restrictions that we 'enjoy' in the USA. Considering that in the western hemisphere, the general flow of air is from the west to the east, we get the brunt of their pollution. I saw once where the majority of the mercury levels in WA State had Chinese origins... Posted by DaveH at November 4, 2004 5:21 PM