http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1505&ncid=1505&e=4&u=/ afp/20040215/ts_alt_afp/us_asia_environment_040215215827
Boundless pollution: Asia's dirty air comes to the US West Sun Feb 15, 4:58 PM ET SEATTLE, United States (AFP) - Though each country regulates its own air quality, the fact is that pollution knows no boundaries, and dirty air from Asia can easily hop the Pacific to pollute the western United States, experts here say, in calling for a global pollution solution. Jet stream-driven pollution from Asia can cross the ocean in a matter of days, with dramatic effect on the quality of air on the US West Coast, Daniel Jaffe, an environmental specialist at the University of Washington, Friday told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (news - web sites). The starkest effects of this transpollution, he said, are an increase in the levels of ozone and fine particulate matter, well over limits set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) (EPA). Asian pollution can cross the Pacific on winds fed by a low pressure system over the Aleutian Islands off southwestern Alaska and a high pressure system near Hawaii in mid-Pacific, the combination of which propels Asian air masses to the US West Coast on experts call "a high-speed conveyor belt." "It's gone from a geophysical curiosity to a point where we can now say that, 'Yes, this occurs at large-enough levels occasionally that it can affect our air quality'," said Jaffe. Nives Dolsak, an international relations specialist at the University of Washington, said pollution generated in one country increasingly impinges on neighboring countries, but in some cases, countries thousands of miles away. "There is no one magic solution to international environmental problems," she said. "I believe actions need to be taken at all of these levels." Nives pointed to a current collaboration among Japan, South Korea (news - web sites), the United States and Canada to monitor pollution levels in China to predict when harmful pollution can impact on other countries, and to alert the concerned governments. She said Japan was the country worst affected by acid rain originating in China. "Many of the same activities that produce global climate change also cause the pollution that's coming here," said Nives. "At the federal level, we have decided not to get involved in global climate change policy, but the states and cities are doing a lot." She noted that the countries of Europe have for years been working to limit the effects of the pollution of one country on its neighbors, but that Europe is increasingly facing the problem of transatlantic pollution from North America. Accords between twin cities or regions on either sides of the oceans, she said, could be an effective solution. "We probably don't have to go east to Washington, D.C., before going west to Beijing," she said. "We have to explore what can be done at the sub-national level that has implications for the international community." Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
