Industrial Pollution Spreads Over China

This NASA Earth Observatory image shows a huge amount of haze spreading out over large portions of China. The massive clouds is more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide, and spans mostly over the eastern parts of the country.

It flows primarily along a east-west axis, a little to the southwest of the Chinese capital, Beijing. This image was captured yesterday. September 7, using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the NASA Aqua satellite.

The haze is caused partially by agricultural fires started on purpose throughout the region, but its major component is industrial and urban pollution. China is currently the world's greatest polluter, especially due to the fact that its industry mostly runs on fossil fuels.

The Asian nation has pledged to reduce the amount of pollutants it puts in the air, but only if other countries agree to do the same. At this time, this type of compromise appears to be an unreal prospect.