I’ve never really considered the direct international implications of polluting, mainly because thinking takes energy and can be difficult and stuff, but it turns out the pollution in China is having an adverse effect on Alaska’s environment. The Peninsula Clarion in Alaska reports:

Industrial pollutants from China’s increasingly robust use of coal are plating out across the globe, including here in Alaska, brought here by storms crossing the Pacific Ocean transporting tons of airborne chemicals that shower onto coastal waters and inland where it they end up in the local food chain, according to scientists studying the phenomenon.

The scientists doing their sciency thing can study the pollutants to find the original source, which is why they can say as a certainty the pollution in Alaska is coming from China. As well, they are attempting to measure the percentage of overall pollution in the United States coming from China, and the numbers are a little frightening.

A Scientific American article published online this week noted that a brown cloud leaving China is visible from space ‘and takes about a week to cross the Pacific to the western U.S., where it accounts for as much as 15 percent of the air pollution.’

You can takepart here to find more articles about airborne pollution.