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I hope that Crispin will comment on both the article and on Smith's
introductory statement. <br>
<br>
Paul<br>
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<td>[climate and stove] Woes of the coldest capital city in
the world</td>
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<td>Fri, 16 Mar 2018 07:03:04 -0700</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Some
of the worst air pollution in the world to be sure, during
the winter – indoors/outdoors it does not matter much
because of the geography/meteorology that traps pollution
near the ground in the winter. Wish the NYT had spent a bit
longer exploring what is actually being done to deal with
this problem, however. With Mongolian and US colleagues,
for example, we conducted a study on the problem with a
major paper produced last fall (reported in this listserver
and available on my website below) with policy
recommendations. And since the fall have been working with
Mongolian and Chinese colleagues in a pilot study with the
Ministry of Energy of newly developed Chinese air-to-air
heat pumps that work down to the minus 40 sometimes reached
in UB. These make electricity an affordable option,
unlike what is said in the article. With the ADB and
others, we are working toward a much larger demonstration
this coming winter. Power of course is produced currently
by coal, but in central facilities usually far from
residential areas and thus with much less impact on
health-damaging air pollution. Over time, the power can be
shifted to solar and wind and thus this solution is
potentially sustainable. Other groups are actively working
to examine different possible solutions, including synthetic
natural gas made from coal/k (It also seems the NYT
could at least spell Ulaanbaatar correctly.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span
style="font-size:33.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:black">Burning
Coal for Survival in the World’s Coldest Capital</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:black">Photographs
and Text by <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/by/bryan-denton"
title="More Articles by Bryan Denton"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="color:black;text-transform:uppercase;text-decoration:none">BRYAN
DENTON</span></a>, MARCH 15, 2018, NYT</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">[This
article has great photos -- see</span> <span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/15/world/asia/mongolia-ulan-bator-coal.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/15/world/asia/mongolia-ulan-bator-coal.html</a>]</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">ULAN
BATOR, Mongolia — Mongolians have long relied on folklore to
explain how miserably cold their winters are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">During
the first of nine phases of winter — each composed of nine
days, starting on Dec. 22 — it is said that vodka made from
milk freezes. During the third set of nine days, when
temperatures can hit minus 40 degrees in both Fahrenheit and
Celsius, the tail of a 3-year-old ox is said to fall off.
Around the sixth set of nine days, which falls in the middle
of February, roads are expected to re-emerge from underneath
the ice and snow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">But
for the nearly 1.5 million residents of the capital, Ulan
Bator, the misery of winter is now defined almost singularly
by the smoke rising out of the city’s chimneys. Since 2016,
in addition to being the world’s <a
href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-coldest-capital-cities-in-the-world.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="color:#326891;text-decoration:none">coldest
capital city</span></a>, it has also had the distinction
of being the one with the highest recorded levels of air
pollution, surpassing notoriously polluted megacities like
Beijing and New Delhi.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">According
to local government figures, around 80 percent of Ulan
Bator’s air pollution is produced by just over half the
population, living in the so-called ger districts in the
north of the city, named for the traditional nomadic
dwelling central to Mongolians’ herding lifestyle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The
ger, or yurt, is a circular tent comprising a single room,
with a family’s bedding and furniture arrayed around the
device that makes its simple architecture survivable in such
a harsh climate: a stove. The ger can be packed onto a truck
and set up within a few hours.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">mute</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">In
recent years, the predominantly lower- to middle-income
migrant workers who reside in these unplanned districts have
been burning over a million tons of raw coal per year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">With
little work available in Mongolia’s smaller cities, hundreds
of thousands have left behind the nomadic herding lifestyle
in the hope of finding opportunities in the mineral boomtown
that Ulan Bator has become. And they have settled in the ger
districts, which have sprung up because of a lack of clarity
about land ownership.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">During
the Communist era, land belonged to the state, but starting
in 1991, land was defined as belonging to the citizens of
Mongolia, leading to confusion as newcomers to the city
claimed land and demanded ownership of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">In
recent years, the predominantly lower- to middle-income
migrant workers who reside in these unplanned districts have
been burning over a million tons of raw coal per year. The
heaviest use is during the winter when staying warm is a
matter of survival as temperatures remain well below
freezing for weeks at a time. Those who can’t afford coal
often burn garbage, adding plastics and other pollutants
into the soupy mix.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#666666">Coal
smoke rose from a school’s coal boiler on the outskirts of
Ulan Bator as two girls walked home after class last month.</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">As
families huddle indoors, burning coal around the clock,
sections of the city see their levels of <a
href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="color:#326891;text-decoration:none">fine
particulate matter</span></a>, a pollutant, soar into
the thousands. On Jan. 30, one station in Ulan Bator
recorded a reading of 3,320 micrograms per cubic meter — <a
href="https://www.unicef.org/media/media_102683.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="color:#326891;text-decoration:none">133 times
what the World Health Organization considers safe</span></a>,
and more than six times what it considers hazardous.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">In
January, Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh announced that
the transportation and use of raw coal in Ulan Bator would
be banned starting in April 2019 as part of an effort to
improve the city’s air quality.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Meantime,
the government has been trying with its limited resources to
put a dent in the problem. Subsidies have been offered to
families for stoves that produce less pollution, and since
January 2017, electricity in many of the city’s
highest-polluting districts was made free at night, when
pollution levels are at their most severe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">But
the cost of electric heaters that can adequately heat a
thinly insulated home in the cold of winter is far out of
reach for many in the ger districts. Nonsubsidized
electricity is more expensive than coal, and far less
plentiful.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The
planned ban on coal has raised eyebrows among miners and
sellers who extract and transport truckloads of the freshly
extracted fuel from the city’s Nalaikh area, which provides
75 percent of the coal burned in the ger districts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Many
are skeptical that Mongolia’s government will be able to
enforce the ban.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“It’s
a fairy tale,” said Khangai Unurkhaan, 25, who sells raw
coal by the truckload at the Shar Khad market near the city
center.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">mute</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">An
entire flatbed of a small truck — weighting 1.3 ton — is
enough to last a single family roughly one month during the
coldest four months of winter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“There
are thousands of families who mine, sell and burn coal in
order to live,” added Mr. Unurkhaan, who had barely given
his name before he was off to deliver to a client’s home his
1.3-ton load of coal, which at $65 to $75, depending on the
quality of coal, lasts a family about one month, according
to official estimates.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Already,
the pediatric wards of hospitals have banks of nebulizers to
treat the large variety of respiratory infections and
viruses that become both chronic and dangerous during the
winter months.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Because
of the pollution, “a simple flu becomes a pneumonia or
bronchitis very easily,” said Dr. Soyol-Erdene Jadambaa, an
immunologist at the Batchingun allergy and immunology
children’s hospital, a private clinic. “It requires
long-term treatment.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Pneumonia
killed up to 435 children under the age of 5 in Ulan Bator
in 2015, <a
href="https://www.unicef.org/mongolia/Mongolia_air_pollution_crisis_ENG.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="color:#326891;text-decoration:none">according to
Unicef</span></a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">
“We need a completely new city,” said Batmend Shirgal, who
was raised in Ulan Bator and is now an engineer at one of
the city’s power plants, as his 2-year-old daughter helped
her younger brother hold a nebulizer to his small face at
the Seven Dwarfs Pediatric Clinic near Ulan Bator’s airport.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The
family had lived year-round in a planned part of the city
with municipal heating until last year, when both children
suffered severe cases of pneumonia and were hospitalized.
This winter, the family decamped to Nalaikh, 24 miles
outside the city, where the air is cleaner despite the
area’s being the primary source of Ulan Bator’s coal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“If
you take coal out of the ger, people will burn anything,”
Mr. Shirgal said. “The tires on their cars, their neighbors’
fences. It’s hard to survive in minus 30 degrees.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div style="border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext
1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"> </p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kirk R. Smith, MPH, PhD <<a
href="mailto:krksmith@berkeley.edu" moz-do-not-send="true">krksmith@berkeley.edu</a>></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Professor of Global Environmental Health</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Director, Collaborative Clean Air Policy
Centre, Delhi</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">747 University Hall, School of Public
Health</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">University of California Berkeley,
94720-7360 USA</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">510-643-0793; fax 642-5815</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.kirkrsmith.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.kirkrsmith.org/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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