Pollution? What pollution? Image from EnvironmentBlog.

China appears to be learning some poor lessons from the United States regarding how to handle environmental problems.

A few days after North Carolina made news by trying to outlaw sea level rise, China is demanding that foreigners stop reporting on Chinese air pollution.

As offensive as both of these strategies are, I actually wonder if they are not indication that some progress is being made on the acceptance of environmentalism as a legitimate global issue. Might these attempts to sweep environmental problems under the rug actually be a tacit acknowledgment that environmental problems exist? As opposed to just denying the problem exists at all. After all, why bother trying to hide something that you don’t think is a problem?

Anyway, this seems like a good opportunity to post an interesting map. This is from NASA, and shows global distribution of particles in the air. It includes both natural and man-made sources, which is why places like the Sahara Desert are highlighted. But holy smokes, check out China.