An interesting piece (China
War on Pollution Benefits From Economic Slowdown) in the WSJ notes:
“A “war against
pollution” declared by China’s leaders is getting a boost from the slowing
economy as the government forces bloated industries like steel, cement and
glassmaking to slim down. The results of cuts
in overcapacity are already visible in notoriously smoggy Beijing. Official
air-pollution data released by China’s government and monitoring by the U.S.
embassy show levels of fine-particulate matter damaging to human health—known
as PM2.5—fell more than 15% in the capital in the first half of 2015, compared
with a year earlier. The city’s 21 million residents have been greeted with
unusual stretches of blue skies.”