Reply To: Hong Kong suffers Chronic Air Pollution

[DocMartin]

Remember a few weeks back, when there was a period of blue skies and clear air as breezes blew in from S China Sea (yet still plenty of grot in roadside air) – and a bureaucratic buffoon stood up and announced that measures to combat HK air pollution were working? Well, here we are a short time later, and with northeast monsoon wafting airborne crap in from border, it’s horribly murky outdoors. Current API page of Env Protection Department shows "high" air pollution at all stations – even Tap Mun, out in Tolo Channel, which I figure is not affected by HK city pollution with northeast winds. But can we expect any of our bureaucrats to emerge from their air-conditioned offices to tell us the Action Blue Sky campaign launched by HK government has so far been a massive disaster, an utter flop and no more than a limp-wristed PR campaign with little but hot air? Any one ranking high in the Env Protection Department about to hold a press conference, tell us the air is still filthy and disgusting and vile and an insult to Hong Kong’s attempts to be a World City? Or how about some official popping round to a hospital or two, finding people who have respiratory problems exacerbated by pollution – perhaps even finding some of the 2000-plus individuals who will be killed by air pollution this year, and saying, "We’re really sorry about this. Sorry about the greed and the money grubbing and the corruption and the cheapskate overseas buyers and the lack of accountability of officials in Hong Kong and China. We’re sorry you and your family and your friends can’t enjoy what’s surely among the most basic of human rights – the right to breathe clean air." Of course such things won’t happen. We can expect our bureaucratic "leaders" to remain in their bunkers; with one or two perhaps ready to emerge next summer, when we just might enjoy another 2-3 week window of southerly breezes and clean air. Three weeks, in a whole year – perhaps that’s now about all we really manage; otherwise, a clear day here, a day there; and long spells of smog, smog, smog. (And, in case you haven’t guessed, I’m not happy about it.)