Tag Archives: smog

Televised Sunrises

Posted on by
Reply

By Brian Jeffery Beggerly (originally posted to Flickr as IMG_0549) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsApparently residents of Beijing can watch the sunrise again thanks to a giant LED screen that broadcasts a live feed of the sunrise from somewhere that isn’t covered in permasmog.

This is disquietingly similar to a plot point in Hugh Howey’s e-book series Wool, part of the Silo series, which I have been reading lately. Without giving away any spoilers, the books are about a group of people who live in a massive underground silo. They are forbidden from even talking about the outside, which has apparently suffered some sort of massive disaster that makes the outside air deadly to anyone who sets one foot out of the silo. On one of the highest levels, i.e. nearest to ground level, a viewscreen displays a live feed of the outside, which is a dead, lifeless world with a ruined city visible in the distance. The clouds part occasionally, allowing residents of the silo to see the sun and the stars. It’s the only view they get of the rest of the world.

It’s supposed to be science fiction, though.

Photo credit: By Brian Jeffery Beggerly (originally posted to Flickr as IMG_0549) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Share

One Way That Pollution Might Actually Increase Freedom

Posted on by
Reply
click from morguefile.com

I love the smell of freedom in the morning. Smells like…..my lungs are burning……

The Chinese government has recently begun to come to grips with the fact that rampant pollution is making the country very foggy, and therefore making it nearly impossible to spy on the populace with the 20 million-odd surveillance cameras they’ve placed here and there. Apparently part of the difficulty with addressing the pollution problem is that years of referring to it as “fog,” not “smog,” has led to measures that deal with the former but not the latter. (Pro tip for repressive governments: don’t internalize your own propaganda.)

It’s not just the surveillance cameras on the ground that are having trouble, though. China’s air pollution “fog” has gotten so thick at times that it obscures the view of entire cities from earth orbit. That has got to be frustrating to anyone with spy satellites in the area. China has such an interesting array of giant things that show up in satellite photos, even if the Great Wall of China is not actually visible from space. It would be a shame for all that stuff to be obscured, but I also understand the importance of not being spied upon. If lung-clogging smfog is the price of liberty, then—no, wait, I’m not going there.

Photo credit: click from morguefile.com.

Share