Today I was told by one of our advisors that she just received a delegation of coal lobbyists from my home State of Wyoming. Both Wyoming and Shaanxi Province have large deposits of coal, which many people still feel is a viable energy resource. Hearing about the delegation and looking out on the polluted city hit home for me in many ways. Growing up in Wyoming I was always blessed with fresh air and clean water. Living now in a city that is consistently smoggy prompted me to do a little research about the effects of 'King Coal' and other pollutants. Every year China is blanketed by 17 million tons of sulphur dioxide from burning coal. The problem increases during the cold months because coal is used as a heat source and air masses become stagnant in lower temperatures. Lung cancer and asthma are very prevalent in many major Chinese cities. Children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to colds, bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases because of the chronic high levels of air pollution. Tests done on dust in Xi'an show elevated levels of heavy metals that bind to the soot. This is due to heavy metal enrichment, industrial, and commercial sources. In the past 10 years China has seen a dramatic increase in the number of motor vehicles which further degrades the air quality. The surrounding countryside is also affected by a shortage of water due to urban air pollution. Moisture condenses around the many airborne particles and falls in the form of acid rain in the cities instead of in hilly areas. Mountains downwind of Chinese urban centers have seen as much as a 50% decrease in pine and fir trees due to the disrupted hydrological cycle. Perhaps if Cheyenne and Casper had as poor of air quality as Xi'an, people would think twice about continuing to promote coal as an energy source. At the least we must try to find cleaner coal technology and work toward phasing it out completely. If we don't make enormous changes fast all of our grandchildren will be suffocating under a thick cloud of smog.
Today I was told by one of our advisors that she just received a delegation of coal lobbyists from my home State of Wyoming. Both Wyoming and Shaanxi Province have large deposits of coal, which many people still feel is a viable energy resource. Hearing about the delegation and looking out on the polluted city hit home for me in many ways. Growing up in Wyoming I was always blessed with fresh air and clean water. Living now in a city that is consistently smoggy prompted me to do a little research about the effects of 'King Coal' and other pollutants. Every year China is blanketed by 17 million tons of sulphur dioxide from burning coal. The problem increases during the cold months because coal is used as a heat source and air masses become stagnant in lower temperatures. Lung cancer and asthma are very prevalent in many major Chinese cities. Children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to colds, bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases because of the chronic high levels of air pollution. Tests done on dust in Xi'an show elevated levels of heavy metals that bind to the soot. This is due to heavy metal enrichment, industrial, and commercial sources. In the past 10 years China has seen a dramatic increase in the number of motor vehicles which further degrades the air quality. The surrounding countryside is also affected by a shortage of water due to urban air pollution. Moisture condenses around the many airborne particles and falls in the form of acid rain in the cities instead of in hilly areas. Mountains downwind of Chinese urban centers have seen as much as a 50% decrease in pine and fir trees due to the disrupted hydrological cycle. Perhaps if Cheyenne and Casper had as poor of air quality as Xi'an, people would think twice about continuing to promote coal as an energy source. At the least we must try to find cleaner coal technology and work toward phasing it out completely. If we don't make enormous changes fast all of our grandchildren will be suffocating under a thick cloud of smog. 
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