Friday, April 11, 2014

Clean air for sale . . . not cheap

China's air pollution problem is so bad that a Beijing artist staged a clever protest.    Liang Kegang returned from a business trip to southern France with a glass jar filled with . . . clean air from the Provence region.

He put the jar of air up for auction, and it brought the equivalent of $860.

The problem is so bad that another group of artists donned dust masks and lay on the ground playing dead in from of an altar at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.  In another city, artists staged a mock funeral for the city's last citizen dying from the smog.

The U.S. air pollution problem is not as bad as it is in big Chinese urban areas;   but I'm betting that China will address the problem more quickly than we have.   Our legislative process gets so bogged down in partisan political posturing that nothing can get done.   But, the Chinese party leaders can simply decide that it has to be done . . . and do it.

No, I'm not advocating their system of government;   I just wish our representatives in Washington were more concerned with our welfare and benefit than getting re-elected.

Ralph

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