Episode Details

The mostpolluted place that I have ever been to is Linfen, a small town located in theNorth of China. About 10 years ago, I went to this place to attend college,which was the first time I visited this place. What’s even more frustrating wasthat it was once listed by the as the most polluted city in the world.

As soonas I walked out of the train station, I was shocked by how bad the pollutionwas. The sky was hazy and the ground was covered with dirt, and people walkingin the street are all wearing masks. And a very interesting thing that I noticedwas that hardly anyone was wearing bright colours. They were all wearing darkcolours, like black, deep blue or grey.

Later, Iwas told that the main cause of the pollution was the coal industry. Every day,thousands of trucks transport coal out of the city. In the process, some coalpieces would fall from the truck and are ground to powder. when vehicles passby, they make the power raise into the air, resulting in the increase of thePM2.5 index.

It wasalso said that the coking industry was to blame for the situation. You know,some raw coals are not suitable for industrial use, so they needed to berefined by coking. But this procedure creates multitudes of sulphide and manyother poisonous gases whose names I can’t remember.

I’veheard that the municipal government has been making great efforts to erase thepollution by shutting down the small coal mines and raising emission standardof the coking industry. So perhaps things have improved a little.

But sincethe pollution has been in the making for years, I do not think there are anyquick and easy fixes to the problem.