We have been following the lethal pollution gripping Chinese cities, including now cities like Shanghai, with stories of children developing lung cancer and other medical problems. One benefit is that the rising levels of pollution have actually made it harder for Chinese police to use the country’s extensive surveillance system to monitor citizens. That is not something that the authoritarian government is likely to celebrate however. Now, the official media has come up with one benefit to offer its choking readers: the thick blanket of unhealthy air could make it more difficult for countries to bomb Chinese cities if they have a hard time finding them.
The story is being attributed to a Time Magazine translator who found an online article arguing that smog “can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations.” The article was later reportedly taken down. The article cited problems in Kosovo and other war zones when the military faced smoke that shielded targets. If that is the case, China is remarkably well protected and citizens can live shorter but more secure lives.
Source: That Mags
Uh, yeahrite. Any sort of missile (launched from land, sea or air) isn’t going to be using *visual* guidance. GPS guidance is pretty much going to be the order of the day, so nice try, Commandante Less-Than-Zero. Enjoy the cruise missile as it flies in through your apartment window.
And all along, we thought they wanted our manufacturing jobs for economic reasons. Inscrutable.
Meet Oil-Qaeda, not as invincible as once thought:
(Largest Producers). What has preserved them is lawyers and lobbyists.
They are out to get you by pumping the rest of what kills the earth out into a place where in will get to you.
Well that’s looking at it from another angle. Optimism run amok.
Shorter life spans to say the least Bruce!
This is a video of a turrist attach on LA that was thwarted by smog:
That is what saved LA from invasion in the late ’40’s through the early ’60’s … then the pro-turrist commies invented the EPA and the city became exposed to turrist incursions:
Raff: think of the advantages of heavy smog, shorter life spans for workers and no pension plan to deal with. By the way all you global warming advocates better get over to Beijing ASAP
The Chinese do not appear to be in a big hurry about pollution. I keep hearing the urban myth, “well, China’s just the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, they will grow out of it.” This first acts like countries further along this made-up timeline don’t still pollute. That aside, such a statement ignores economies of scale combined with a growing — not shrinking — sense of Chinese entitlement to gather all the toys Westerners “enjoy” without going through any of that pesky regulation.
It appears the air itself disagrees with this notion. Pollution is cumulative in humans. How can this possibly end without a lot of keeling over and shuttering vast swaths of the country? China’s future is not bright.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2013/12/10/air-pollution-stretches-from-beijing-to-shanghai-as-seen-from-space/
I guess you don’t have to worry about paying your workers more money if they are more concerned about just being able to breathe!
Cheaper than chemical warfare…. Such a blessing….
Repeat the lie enough times and it slowly becomes the truth….
Military defense? China seems to be forgetting its treaty obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
*cough*cough*cough*radar*cough*wheeze*gasp*
“Todo por la Patria”
(Old Franco slogan)