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Covid-19 Clears the Air over China

Beijing with haze and without haze. Credit: Jonathan M. Moch/Harvard SEAS

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If long time and highly respected CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour can make the comment that one of the positive outcomes of Covid-19 is the serious reduction in pollution of the skies over China, perhaps I can take a moment to add a few more.

The BFD – Multi award winning journalist Christiane Amanpour

Before I do, let me just put on record that I think it’s a pathetically puerile thing for any journalist to say. It’s the kind of comment one might almost write off had it been made by one of the journalism school half-trained half-wits that seem to be running most of the world’s newsrooms today but coming from a seasoned and experienced, mature journalist, with a huge worldwide reputation, I can but marvel in despair. Over 3,000 deaths from the virus: Seems a fair price to pay for a bit of blue sky over Beijing don’t you think?

The BFD – A photo released on March 2, 2020, by NASA shows maps displaying nitrogen dioxide (NO2) values across China from January 1-20 (before the quarantine) and February 10-25 (during the quarantine) — illustrating a significant decrease in NO2 over China related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of the COVID-19.(Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory)

We all need a bit of “posidividdy” in our lives, so if this is to be the standard we are to use as a measure, maybe I can dive down through the scum and scrape the bottom of the barrel for some “posidives” of my own.

The MSM has been full of Coronavirus for days on end to the complete exclusion of pretty much anything else that is happening on the planet. That in itself has to be a plus even though the coverage has often bordered on sensationalism and they still managed to find ways of blaming Donald Trump for it.

To be fair, Coronavirus is the main story of the day and everything else has been relegated to subheadings. It’s been a full two weeks since there’s been any mention (that I’ve seen or heard) of Greta Thunberg, climate strikes or climate change. That makes the smog over China pale into insignificance in my view. Could it be said that killing off some old folks in exchange for not having “How dare you” Greta all over the media, would have to rate as a fair price to pay: Amanpour has made it so.

The BDF – Just a reminder of what we’ve been missing

Shall I go on? Maybe not. It started as a bright idea but actually, I’m getting depressed writing this and remembering how much pathetic stuff passes for international news these days.

It would be remiss of the MSM not to treat the biggest story in the world as the biggest story in the world so I won’t go on about it, but I do think Ms Amanpour’s comment rates as one of the journalistic stuff-ups of the year, though if you take it away from the misery of this cursed virus, it does point to just how awful the air over Beijing really is.

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