Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
works) consume large amounts of coal and contribute greatly to emissions,
smoke, and dust in Shanghai. Industrial emissions of heavy metals and toxics
are also signifi cant contributors to air pollution in Shanghai. Although the air
is getting cleaner, coal still accounts for a majority of the energy used in Shang-
hai.
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Just how clean the air is depends on what data are used. For example, the
Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau uses air-quality information
depending on particles of 10 micrometers, not the smaller 2.5 standard that is
most harmful to human health, especially of the young and the elderly. h ere-
fore, the U.S. consulate in Shanghai began issuing its own pollution statistics
as an “uno' cial resource” for the expatriate community living in Shanghai.
h e transportation sector is also a major contributor to air pollution and
carbon emissions, specifi cally the auto infrastructure. h e number of motor
vehicles increased at a staggering rate in China beginning in the 1990s. On
the production side, the forty-two thousand cars produced in 1990 jumped
to 2.3 million in 2003.
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According to the
Financial Times,
in 2013 China pro-
duced more cars than Europe (at more than nineteen million). h e problems
stem not just from the growing size of the motor fl eet but also from lax emis-
sion standards and poor road infrastructure. In the past, ambient lead levels
from leaded gasoline (banned in 1997) have also been a major concern. Until
recently, the motor vehicle fl eet was fueled mainly by leaded gasoline.
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Despite better controls on fuel quality and emissions standards, the sheer
volume of the increase of vehicles in Shanghai generates substantial carbon
emissions. Conservative estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from Shang-
hai's transportation sector show emissions quadrupling by 2020, while high
scenarios project a sevenfold increase.
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To give context for the already com-
pleted highway construction, Robert Moses constructed some 415 miles of
highway in the New York metropolitan region in his entire career. Shanghai
has built well over three times that amount in the 1990s alone.
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At the same
time, the urban subway has grown from virtually no miles to the most track
miles in the world.
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