Coastal cities yes, but Vancouver has an oceanic climate, meaning the wind generally comes from the west, and there is no mountain chain blocking it as it borders the Pacific to its west.
Kaohsiung, like the rest of Taiwan, has the monsoon climate, meaning the wind changes directions from season to season, and in winter wind is often from the east which would be blocked by the mountain chains.
Kaohsiung, alas, has heaps of heavy industry. Vancouver I think has some Starbucks stores, and maybe some other things, I canāt remember.
Both cities, however, are vulnerable to climate issues. If you were in Vancouver during the fires the past while, youād know that this is a terrible threat to all forms of life.
Guy
Yeah, there are reasons. Iām sure there are reasons why Paris had the levels shown above compared to Taipei.
My point was, cherry picking data to suit a narrative and wailing about western supremacy doesnāt prove much of anything.
Edit:
Funny you mention fires, though.
Historical averages would be more useful if youāre comparing places then looking at just one random point in time. Other factors specific to each locale relative to that point in time could be skewing your results.
Hereās the data from 2017-2021
Kaohsiung is the worst and Vancouver is the cleanest. Taipei is slightly better than Paris.
I wonder how much of the 2020-2021 data is skewed because Paris and Vancouver had Covid lockdowns that vastly reduced the number of vehicles in the streets for a number of months, while Taiwan only ever reached partial shutdown level.
Ah gotcha.
As soon as you approach KH you can smell all the fumes from their petrochemical industry, among others. Actually I remember it smelled of gas the first times I visited, but it is also true that some time later there were gas related explosions so it might be fixed by now.
Alsoā¦ Whatās the population of Paris?
Also, speaking of racismā¦ You blame China, which population you said is all guilty for whatever thought crimes and should dieā¦? So many levels of irony.
Air pollution came up in my university class today, and I asked how many students kept track of air pollution, for example with an app on their phone. Apparently zero, although thereās always the possibility they didnāt understand me, or didnāt bother answering.
I was surprised by that, but perhaps I shouldnāt have been. Even around 2002, I was paying more attention to air quality forecasts here than I was to weather, and itās a big part of the reason I moved from Tainan to Taipei. But I guess many others donāt follow air quality much.
I didnāt give a toss about air pollution when I was 18 or so. Has it ever been the case?
Is really obvious. Today in Taipei the air is pretty bad and you can see the sky is not blue, the sun in not the same, everything looks different. Even short distance
If itās sunny with no clouds but the sky has a milky washed out look, thatās because of the 2.5PM particles diffusing the light.
Generally speaking on a sunny day with no clouds the sky should look blue to deep blue.
Another easy way to tell is simply to see how far out you can see everyday, for instance which mountain peaks or buildings are visible.
Even the East coast isnāt escaping the haze. Central West to South West Taiwan is obviously generating added air pollutants.
Taiwan is actually far enough away from China to get little pollution from there. Especially as the worst regions of China are quite far away.
Now the eu-15 definitely has much less pollution per Capita vs Taiwan. But yeah in Europe there is one problem, they filter a lot of bigger particles that clearly make it through in Taiwan, but pm. 2.5 and 5 are actually not filtered much better. So the visible pollution in Taiwan is much worse - like some big Eastern European cities, the actually dangerous pollution is pretty bad due to population density in Europe too/worse for s**tholes like Milan.
And yeah northern America is so sparsely populated that basically all pollution is local for each metropolitan areaā¦
Sure, but how can you tell that itās air pollution and not just overcast/foggy weather?
Iām looking out my window right now (in Kaohsiung) and the sky is as blue as it normally is. There are days (especially in the winter) when the whole sky is white or gray, but Iāve always just assumed it was bad weather.
Taipei typically has little pockets of green but today not so much unless youāre going to the zoo.
Easiest thing is to check an air quality sensor or site. I can smell the difference between clean fog and smoke or heavy pollution
On a clear day, you can go up Monkey Mountain or to a cafe on the cliffs and see the boats clearly. On a polluted day, even though the sky is blue the view is still hazy. On a clear day, you can see the Pingtung mountains from Monkey Mountain.
Kaohsiung certainly hasnāt been the airpocalypse I was led to expect, looking at the historical data seems it has gotten better here. You are lucky to live right by the water, where the winds are more likely to keep things clear.
By the way, now we know where you live. You might want to delete that photoā¦
