{"id":159296,"date":"2013-07-09T02:41:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T09:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=159296"},"modified":"2013-07-09T02:41:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T09:41:35","slug":"coal-use-may-cost-northern-chinese-billions-of-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/07\/coal-use-may-cost-northern-chinese-billions-of-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Pollution May Cost Northern Chinese Billions of Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pollution from coal used for winter heating <a href=\"http:\/\/mitei.mit.edu\/news\/data-china-show-large-amounts-coal-emissions-shorten-lives\"><strong>cuts individual life expectancies in northern China by more than five years<\/strong><\/a> relative to those in the south, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2013\/07\/03\/1300018110\">a newly published study<\/a>. The research comes on top of recent findings that <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/pollution-effects-glaring-but-can-china-adapt\/\">outdoor air pollution caused 1.2 million excess deaths in 2010<\/a>, but the leading figure from the new paper\u2014a total life expectancy loss of more than 2.5 billion years across the 500 million inhabitants of northern China\u2014is even more striking. From Peter Dizikes at the MIT Energy Initiative:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The research is based on long-term data compiled for the first time, and projects that the 500 million Chinese who live north of the Huai River are set to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years of life expectancy due to the extensive use of coal to power boilers for heating throughout the region. Using a quasi-experimental method, the researchers found very different life-expectancy figures for an otherwise similar population south of the Huai River, where government policies were less supportive of coal-powered heating.<\/p>\n<p>[\u2026] The research stems from a policy China implemented during its era of central planning, prior to 1980. The Chinese government provided free coal for fuel boilers for all people living north of the Huai River, which has long been used as a rough dividing line between north and south in China.<\/p>\n<p>The free-coal policy means people in the north stay warm in winter \u2014 but at the cost of notably worse environmental conditions. Using data covering an unusually long timespan \u2014 from 1981 through 2000 \u2014 the researchers found that air pollution, as measured by total suspended particulates, was about 55 percent higher north of the river than south of it, for a difference of around 184 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter. [<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mitei.mit.edu\/news\/data-china-show-large-amounts-coal-emissions-shorten-lives\">Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The paper also states that each rise of 100 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3 brings a three-year reduction in life expectancy at birth. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/09\/world\/asia\/pollution-leads-to-drop-in-life-span-in-northern-china-study-finds.html\"><strong>One of the authors explained the findings&#8217; significance to The New York Times&#8217; Edward Wong<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt highlights that in developing countries there\u2019s a trade-off in increasing incomes today and protecting public health and environmental quality,\u201d said the American member of the research team, Michael Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \u201cAnd it highlights the fact that the public health costs are larger than we had thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[\u2026] \u201cThis adds to the growing mountain of evidence of the heavy cost of China\u2019s pollution,\u201d said Alex L. Wang, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policies. \u201cOther studies have shown significant near-term harms, in the form of illness, lost work days and even risks to children beginning in utero. This study suggests that the long-term harms of coal pollution might be worse than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Wang said the new study could \u201chelp to build the case for more aggressive environmental regulation\u201d \u2014 for example, a previous order by Chinese leaders to shut down coal-fired boilers in some areas could be widened, and faster shutdown times could be required. [<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/09\/world\/asia\/pollution-leads-to-drop-in-life-span-in-northern-china-study-finds.html\">Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Despite these effects, <a href=\"http:\/\/apps.who.int\/gho\/data\/node.main.688?lang=en\">China&#8217;s overall combined life expectancy at birth rose from 69 to 76 between 1990 and 2011<\/a>, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pollution from coal used for winter heating cuts individual life expectancies in northern China by more than five years relative to those in the south, according to a newly published study. The research comes on top of recent findings that outdoor air pollution caused 1.2 million excess deaths in 2010, but the leading figure from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,132,14744,14745,14746,6,5,1051],"tags":[348,463,4882,814,7310],"class_list":["post-159296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-environmental-crisis","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-sci-tech","category-society","category-top-article","tag-air-pollution","tag-coal","tag-environmental-regulation","tag-life-expectancy","tag-lung-disease","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coal Pollution May Cost Northern Chinese Billions of Years<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/07\/coal-use-may-cost-northern-chinese-billions-of-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coal Pollution May Cost Northern Chinese Billions of Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pollution from coal used for winter heating cuts individual life expectancies in northern China by more than five years relative to those in the south, according to a newly published study. The research comes on top of recent findings that outdoor air pollution caused 1.2 million excess deaths in 2010, but the leading figure from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/07\/coal-use-may-cost-northern-chinese-billions-of-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-09T09:41:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-09T09:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samuel Wade\" \/>\n<meta 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