I have a coworker I could introduce you to.
Wait, never mind. He’s married. Sorry.
Whatever about the other opinions, this is not true, there is bad air pollution in Taiwan as accepted by many city governments already. It is the Republic of China on Taiwan government that refuses to accept how bad it can be.
This was the view from my place a while back and no my windows are not that dirty. 
This is just the visible stuff. Sometimes we get to enjoy various organic gases that they like to emit, especially at night.
Here’s a handy map of Asian air pollution.
aqicn.org/?map
Here’s a video taken about one month after the above picture from a vantage point looking down on Taichung city. Yes Taichung city should appear like a shining metropolis in the middle…somewhere.
But don’t just take my word for it, look at the link in this thread.
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … 8&t=105929
Alternatively if one is from Beijing one might also have the same opinion as above. Good for you Beijinger!
ain’t foreign (fine, half foreign) and I’ve got those… well… just shorts… not really short shorts… and i do own them cause I bought them in California…
the long hair legs though, all Taiwan…
[quote=“headhonchoII”]Here’s a handy map of Asian air pollution.
aqicn.org/?map[/quote]
Thanks for that!
But, unless I am misreading or otherwise misinterpreting the data, Taipei’s air looks pretty good. At least today.
Is there a map of the same type of data for other regions of the planet so that some comparison can be made?
Taiwan’s air looks good compared to India and China, places like that. Their cities and much of the countryside are horrifically polluted. Taiwan looks bad if you compare to the US or Japan or Korea or almost anywhere in Europe (it does depend on season also). But you have to understand how they rate the indexes. Just because they say ‘good’ or ‘moderate’ doesn’t mean that, both from a peak load perspective and a real health perspective. For instance Taiwan is very densely populated, and we can imagine the peak exposure at some intersections or in some industrial areas must be very severe. What I would like to see is readings of exposure levels at major intersections.
It’s also important to know the level of PM2.5, which is not shown here. On the other air pollution thread information has been posted comparing PM figures between US and Taiwan. The US has done an excellent job overall in reducing it’s air pollution records over the last few decades, it still has more to do, but it shows it can be done. Recently the US moved to a more stringent rating system as it has been proven that PM2.5 levels above 15 are still bad for your health.
According to your link in an earlier post (the one about Asian air pollution), it scores better than Japan, so now you are basically trolling.
Places in Asia I have been where Taipei has better air than:
-Tokyo
-Seoul
-all of China
-Manila
-Hong Kong
-Bangkok
-Chiang Mai
-Hanoi
-Ho Chi Minh
-Jakarta
-all of India
-Singapore (not always but various times in the year, especially burning season)
-KL (same as Singapore)
-Los Angeles (many neighborhoods are basically Asia)
I cannot speak for Taichung because I find the entire West Coast of Taiwan to be a shittier version of Taipei County and avoid that entire side of the island, but what I experience in Taipei and down the East Coast as well as the Southern tip to be not bad at all.
There is plenty for foreigners to whinge about on here, and plenty of things for contrarians like HH to post about but air pollution isn’t one of them. 
Well moron is as moron says and all that. Enjoy your air at a Zhongxiao or Zhonghe intersection of your choice.
Oh what’s that you say, Zhonghe isn’t in Taipei city? Oh my bad.
What’s that, a nuclear plant or three near Taipei, hmm, Taichung might not be so bad after all 
.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]Well moron is as moron says and all that. Enjoy your air at a Zhongxiao or Zhonghe intersection of your choice.
Oh what’s that you say, Zhonghe isn’t in Taipei city? Oh my bad.
What’s that, a nuclear plant or three near Taipei, hmm, Taichung might not be so bad after all .[/quote]
Correct, ZhongHe is not Taipei City.
Also, the location of the nuclear plant on an island the size of Taiwan is a moot point.
Nice Gumpian reply however, very apropos to the content of the post.
I hate to interrupt a decent spat between DD and HH 
But the list of cities above include a lot of 3rd world crap holes. Not exactly a good comparison. If you’re going to mention Jakarta you might as well say the traffic in Taiwan is orderly too. I never got the impression Tokyo, Seoul, and HK had worse air than Taipei (HK’s air isn’t that good though, partly because of neighboring Shenzhen I would guess). At least when I’m at those places I don’t have scooters spewing exhaust in my face every which way I turn, not to mention ghost money smoke. I have my doubts about Taipei’s air being better than LA too. Last time I arrived there from Taipei the air filled my lungs like a mountain breeze in the Rockies in comparison. My
I can’t understand the comments (in this thread and in the other air pollution thread) to the effect of “Japan has a lot better air than Taiwan.”
There are several Japanese cities on the map headhoncho provides that top out over 100. There are also a very large number of cities that are in the same range as most of Taiwan’s west coast (40-70 range).
None of these numbers are good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
For everyone’s reference, here are some articles about smog in Los Angeles, California. It is a much older problem than even I thought, dating back to (at least according this article) 1903.
kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus … 31321.html
kcet.org/socal/departures/la … ehind.html
Here’s an interesting youtube video about Tokyo:
youtube.com/watch?v=JkL-XxRIs8Q
[quote=“dahsiung”]For everyone’s reference, here are some articles about smog in Los Angeles, California. It is a much older problem than even I thought, dating back to (at least according this article) 1903.
kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus … 31321.html
kcet.org/socal/departures/la … ehind.html
Here’s an interesting youtube video about Tokyo:
youtube.com/watch?v=JkL-XxRIs8Q[/quote]
And a hundred + years ago NYC’s streets were covered with horse manure
I will look for the average data over time regarding Japan and other countries, it’s not useful nor smart to just take one day and extrapolate for that. From the data I checked before Taiwan was significantly more polluted than Japan, overall. Recently Japanese have been getting up in arms about pollution that has been blown across from China.
Also you should be aware that there is a difference between PM 2.5 and PM 10, data on PM 2.5 has been scarce until recently.
Not that it should matter if Taiwan is less or more polluted from some other place with a pollution problem. That’s kind of dumb thinking. I can’t stand people denying or obfuscating about a problem when it clearly exists.
Taiwan is not bad at all when it comes to environmental health. I think I’ll fry up some 空心菜 that was grown on top of a used battery dump site with recycled soy bean oil and some garlic :roflmao:
Be careful what you ask for, I can go get more pics to satisfy the bloodlust .
[quote=“dahsiung”]I can’t understand the comments (in this thread and in the other air pollution thread) to the effect of “Japan has a lot better air than Taiwan.”
There are several Japanese cities on the map headhoncho provides that top out over 100. There are also a very large number of cities that are in the same range as most of Taiwan’s west coast (40-70 range).
None of these numbers are good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.[/quote]
What’s missing from the map are long term graphs. You can’t really look at a single day of data to make these claims. I have been looking at that map weekly this winter and Japan has typically been in the 50’s while Taiwan has been in the 80-150 range. China on the other hand has been in the 150-600 range… HK is usually just as bad or worse than Taiwan.
[quote=“Abacus”][quote=“dahsiung”]I can’t understand the comments (in this thread and in the other air pollution thread) to the effect of “Japan has a lot better air than Taiwan.”
There are several Japanese cities on the map headhoncho provides that top out over 100. There are also a very large number of cities that are in the same range as most of Taiwan’s west coast (40-70 range).
None of these numbers are good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.[/quote]
What’s missing from the map are long term graphs. You can’t really look at a single day of data to make these claims. I have been looking at that map weekly this winter and Japan has typically been in the 50’s while Taiwan has been in the 80-150 range. China on the other hand has been in the 150-600 range… HK is usually just as bad or worse than Taiwan.[/quote]
My point is that Japan’s air is not very good either, even if you look long term. Overall, it is perhaps better than Taiwan, but my point is that this air pollution problem is present throughout Asia and is something that needs to be dealt with internationally and locally as soon as possible.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
Not that it should matter if Taiwan is less or more polluted from some other place with a pollution problem. That’s kind of dumb thinking. I can’t stand people denying or obfuscating about a problem when it clearly exists.[/quote]
Absolutely right. We should be concerned about this problem no matter how Taiwan compares to other places. This is our home and we should all be trying to make it better for everyone.
[quote=“louisfriend”][quote=“dahsiung”]For everyone’s reference, here are some articles about smog in Los Angeles, California. It is a much older problem than even I thought, dating back to (at least according this article) 1903.
kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus … 31321.html
kcet.org/socal/departures/la … ehind.html
Here’s an interesting youtube video about Tokyo:
youtube.com/watch?v=JkL-XxRIs8Q[/quote]
And a hundred + years ago NYC’s streets were covered with horse manure[/quote]
That’s not at all the same thing. My point in posting those articles and videos was to show how this problem is being dealt with around the world, not to say, “You see, it’s worse elsewhere.” LA has struggled with this problem for a long, long time and it is only now getting better. The great majority of it is caused by human activity, but it is also influenced by the regions climate and geography. London has also been struggling with air pollution, as was pointed out in a recent TT editorial. It would be wise to look how others are dealing with the problem and what the results have been, rather than just making glib remarks.
Well, if you don’t like air pollution, then it’s a really good thing that Taiwan has those evil nuclear power plants instead of coal, isn’t it?
Yeah, this is a complicated question. Ideally, the nuclear power plants on Taiwan can be phased out and the fourth plant not be opened, but is there an immediate power solution that doesn’t involve burning more coal?
Of course, we must focus on better energy solutions, but the short-term result of shuttering the current nuclear plants will be a sharp increase in the use of coal - and therefore more air pollution.
Yeah, this is a complicated question. Ideally, the nuclear power plants on Taiwan can be phased out and the fourth plant not be opened, but is there an immediate power solution that doesn’t involve burning more coal?
Of course, we must focus on better energy solutions, but the short-term result of shuttering the current nuclear plants will be a sharp increase in the use of coal - and therefore more air pollution.[/quote]
No it won’t. Nuclear power accounts for a small percentage of Taiwan’s energy. Around the same as overall reserve capacity. If nuclear was phased out with a concurrent rise in energy prices to persuade people to use it more efficiently there would be zero need for more coal plants.