Figure 1.14
Wind carries pollution across the Pacific. The rapid economic development of China in the last few decades has relied in large part on burning coal to generate electricity. Coal combustion produces a wide range of dangerous pollutants, including particulate matter. The bike riders shown in the inset are suffering through industrial emissions in Beijing, China. The satellite image shows the migration of a plume of industrial emissions mixed with naturally occurring dust from the interior of China and Mongolia to North America between April 4 and April 16, 2001. Red and yellow areas show highest pollution concentrations.(Photo, PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images; map, NASA)