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A new NASA study, using advances in satellite technology, has finally been able to measure the long-rumored drift of pollution from China and other East Asian countries, into North America:

“We used the latest satellite capabilities to distinguish industrial pollution and smoke from dust transported to the western regions of North America from East Asia. Looking at four years of data from 2002 to 2005 we estimated the amount of pollution arriving in North America to be equivalent to about 15 percent of local emissions of the U.S. and Canada,” said Hongbin Yu, an associate research scientist of the University of Maryland Baltimore County working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This is a significant percentage at a time when the U.S. is trying to decrease pollution emissions to boost overall air quality. This means that any reduction in our emissions may be offset by the pollution aerosols coming from East Asia and other regions.”

So basically, we could all live clean as Oregon hippies and we’d still breathing in the toxic exhaust of Chinese factories. But hey, at least we can buy CHEAP ELECTRONICS AT WAL-MART!!!!!111 We can enjoy our last days dying of cancer, watching Planet Earth on FUCKING BLU-RAY! OMG HIGH RESOLUTION!!1:

With so many of Earth’s natural wonders on display, it’s only fitting that the final DVD in this five-disc set is devoted to Planet Earth: The Future, a separate three-part series in which a global array of experts is assembled to discuss issues of conservation, protection of delicate ecosystems, and the socio-economic benefits of understanding nature as a commodity that returns trillions of dollars in value at no cost to Earth’s human population. At a time when the multiple threats of global warming should be obvious to all, let’s give Sir David the last word, from the closing of Planet Earth’s final episode: “We can now destroy or we can cherish–the choice is ours.”

One wonders, if fucking Sir David took the time to figure out that by the time you’ve got your Blu-Ray player hooked up to your Wal-Mart television and you’re playing your FIVE-disc Planet Earth set, you’ve already made the choice? After all, there’s an even higher resolution available when you’re trying to check out nature: its called OUTSIDE. Maybe if we tried marketing that shit on TV it’d become a little more popular.