um shouldn't all the pictures have smog outside the bubble? I mean if it's blue skies outside the bubble why do you have the bubble?

It's the beginning of the Caves of Steel! Asimov, right again.

Maybe they should just clean up the crap coming out of their stacks and not try to bandaid the problem with a bubble. We all share the air that China is bent on destroying because the air circulates around the entire planet. What is wrong with those people anyway? They are killing off tigers, elephants, gorillas, and sharks like there is no end to these highly endangered creatures. Are they completely clueless and uncaring?

Depressing. We "intelligent" beings of this planet got together to create vast industries that were built without care, polluting everything, but creating some wealth for some. Next step: Use more of that industry to create zones that fix the pollution for some (those of us who happened to end up with some of the wealth) while screwing up the outside even more, creating more materials waste, energy waste and toxic waste from the filters for these spaces. Upside: The economy will grow. Those of us on the inside will hail that. And I'm sure we'll have some advanced lighting that can create the perfect blue sky appearance at the flick of a switch.

Sounds like Ecoban city idea for anime Wonderful Days (Sky Blue) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Days

Buellrider, China has enormous energy requirements to sustain a 1.3B population, but has a third world economy and air quality. China uses 77T BTU's energy per year extracted from coal, oil and wood products. The US uses 101T BTU's energy per year with a 317M population, but with the EPA requirements still has cleaner air than in the 60's & 70's! India has a population of 1.2B and some of the most densely populated cities yet is not as polluted as some districts in China. Why, I don't know! Westerly winds in the northern latitudes pushes China's air to the US.

This is like giving somebody with a painful cavity morphine instead of a filling. China needs to install emission controls on their industry and cars.

But China makes the best stuff! It's pretty much the defacto factory for the whole world, and everyone knows that factories make a mess.
And, for everyone who didn't read the article - this is about *Beijing*, which is *in* China - not *all* of China...

Maybe they could just start canning fresh air and sell it. Seems like it would be the easier route.

Just saw a report today about Beijing air. U. S. standards put out by the AQMD say 20 on there scale was as dirty as we should put up with. On that same scale Beijing was 540 and it leaves a metallic taste in your mouth. Yeah. So they took a train south and after 45 min the rating was 620. eventually it slowely got better, In 450 miles it was all the way down to 80. There's a lot of people that want to close our EPA so corporations don't have to do what's right. I don't know if we would get to 540 but I would bet we would get to 80 and they still would try to justify it.