Carbon monoxide emissions from industrial production have serious consequences for human health and are a strong indicator of overall air pollution levels. Many countries aim to reduce their emissions, but they cannot control air flows originating in other regions. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at global flows of air pollution and how they relate to economic activity in the global supply chain. "Our study is unique in combining atmospheric transport of air pollution with supply chain analysis as it tells us where the pollution is coming from and who is ultimately responsible for it," said lead author Sandy Dall'erba, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and director of the Center for Climate, Regional, Environmental and Trade Economics (CREATE), both part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois. "There is a direct link between a country's level of production and how much air pollution is emitted. But production may be driven by demand from consumers in other countries. We use supply chain analysis to quantify the links between production and consumption. This helps us to understand how production in one country is linked to domestic and foreign demand," he added. "Over recent years, South Korea has taken several measures to reduce its own pollution, yet it has experienced worsening air quality. Why? The answer is to be found in its upwind neighbor, China. Yet, a large amount of the goods manufactured in China are destined for foreign consumers in the U.S. and in Europe, among other places. As such, who is to be blamed for the increase in air pollution in South Korea? That is the challenge we embarked on with this study," Dall'erba stated. "To put these numbers in perspective, 5 Tg of carbon monoxide corresponds to the emissions from all of the cars in the U.S. -- roughly 274 million -- each driving 13,500 miles per... |