Expert Tao Shu: Do you believe that cooking pollution in rural areas causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year?

Maybe it's because I don't read much. I personally don't believe it. I only know that the countryside has been cooking for thousands of years and I have never heard of any air pollution. What I read from the textbook is that after the industrial revolution, factories and families used a lot of coal, which caused serious air pollution and turned London into a foggy city. What I see is that the exhaust emissions of cars make the air quality worse, especially the smoke from various chemical plants.

1. Professor Peking University said: Cooking and heating in rural areas produce PM2.5 pollution, which causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Professor Tao Shu, an academician from Peking University, made this conclusion not casually, but in a published academic research paper. This paper mentioned:

In 20 14, about115,000 people died prematurely because of inhaling PM2.5, of which 770,000 people died from solid fuel used by residents for cooking and heating, and rural areas contributed more to PM2.5, of which 370,000 people died from cooking and heating in rural areas.

At first glance, this statement makes sense. But on second thought, I felt something was wrong.

As long as it is a life activity, it will inevitably produce certain pollution, and such a huge life group in rural areas will inevitably produce corresponding pollution. But the earth can have a self-purification function, which can purify PM2.5 in the air. This part of the pollution produced in rural areas is relatively stable in the ecological balance system.

It is not agriculture that really breaks this stability, but industry.

Of course, I am also very supportive of industrial development, which is the general trend and is good for everyone. Rural areas should indeed make concessions for industrial development, reduce firewood burning and make room for natural air purification, which will be much more convenient for industry.

But since the countryside has made some sacrifices, we can no longer blame the countryside for cooking.

Second, cooking by fire in rural areas is indeed polluted, but it should not be said from the same pot. It is not only straw and firewood that produce PM2.5 pollution, but also:

Combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, gasoline and diesel; Burning all kinds of garbage; Industrial dust; Dust on the construction site; Automobile exhaust emissions.

Similarly, forest fires, floating pollen, bacteria, sea salt, volcanic ash and dust in nature will all produce PM2.5 pollutants.

We ask ourselves, what is the biggest pollution in this? Is it really the firewood that has been burned in the countryside for thousands of years?

Finally, please leave some space for the countryside while the industry is developing. We should also choose green travel, take public transport and make contributions to environmental protection.