Joe Soucheray: Actually, Mr. President, U.S. has done well by environment - TwinCities.com

Over the past two weeks or so, there have been stories out of China telling of air pollution so dangerous in Beijing that the readings were off the charts. A smog, so foul and so poisonous, has hung over the city to the point that people can't see across the street and they have been advised to stay indoors. Flights have been canceled.
Infants have been hospitalized, along with the elderly.

I want the name of one infant who has been rushed to the hospital in the United States because of the damage we have done to air quality.

Every day the Pioneer Press prints an Air Score. It's on the weather page, where I noted that the record high temperature for Jan. 22 was 51, in 1942, neither here nor there, but interesting. Monday, our Air Score in the Twin Cities was 23. The chart reads from zero to 500, with zero to 50 being good and working up, or down, to a reading of 301-500 being hazardous. When they say they were off the charts in Beijing they mean they were way beyond 500, up to 755 on Jan. 12, a measurement of PM2.5, or particulate matter that comes out of smokestacks and exhaust pipes and the coal-burning stoves of Chinese farmers.

China is booming and the government looks the other way on the ruinous effects of the boom on the environment.

Twitter / MotherJones: Come hear @climate_ice & ...

Come hear @climate_ice & @chriscmooney discuss why Greenland may be lost forever @ClimateDesk Live in DC 1/28. RSVP: http://bit.ly/WqsT56

Obama stalls for time after Nebraska approves Keystone XL oil pipeline | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Federal financial disclosure records show Kerry, who ranks among the richest men in Congress, has investments in two Calgary-based energy companies that have lobbied for approval of the pipeline project. The Massachusetts Democrat, whose estimated net worth is $194m, had as much as $750,000 in Suncor and $31,000 in Cenova. Both energy firms have pressed for approval of the pipeline, the records show.

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