[mensetmanusman]

People have statistically calculated the loss of years to be lived due to monthly exposure to such conditions.

This, combined with the currency controls that China implements are, for example, an interesting manifestation of how the Chinese people literally sacrifice their lives and purchasing power to improve their economy, become globally competitive, and make their ‘leaders’ wealthy. The average person there does not know that they are doing this, but the leadership has this option in a totalitarian government that other states do not.

[LurkingPenguin]

China's environmental track record stinks to high heaven (literally) and there's no doubt the country's leadership has been and is sacrificing public health for economic growth the same way the US did during industrialization. But the situation in Asia isn't as simple as China.

I live in Taiwan. While there's no doubt that some (and at times perhaps a lot) of the air pollution in Taiwan blows over from China, there are plenty of domestic sources of air pollution. Taichung has the fourth largest coal-fired power plant in the world, and the area between Taichung and Kaohsiung is home to many factories and industrial sources of pollution. Scooter usage is very high as well.

Taiwan is a democracy, getting closer to developed than developing, and a lot of younger people care about the environment. But without manufacturing and the pollution that comes with it, Taiwan doesn't have an economy.

Malaysia has a lot of air pollution. Some is industrial, but a lot comes from fires in Indonesia. A similar situation exists in Thailand. The northern part of the country, including Chiang Mai, has horrible seasonal pollution from agricultural fires in Myanmar and Laos. And of course many parts of India are infamous for pollution.

The bottom line is that Asia is the world's factory and home to many natural resources that have severe environmental consequences when exploited. Asian countries want to develop and the only realistic paths to economic growth are paved with pollution.

Living here has made it clear to me that for all of the talk about reshoring manufacturing in the US, it isn't going to happen, not just for economic reasons, but because there's no way Americans will be willing to sacrifice the clean(er) air and water they have today.

Pollution in Asia is a big problem but the West, because of its consumption that drives industrial activity in Asia, is reasonably as much a cause of the problem as the people in Asia are.

[spaetzleesser]

They are following the path of the West. We also sacrificed the health and lives of workers for a long time so capitalists could make more money. Any kind of consciousness and willingness to reduce pollution is a pretty new phenomenon. And we are still OK with people living in old buildings with lead paint and lead piping although we know how harmful that is.