Fewer sandstorms give hope for cleaner air

Using conventional technology, China, like other affected countries, plants grasses and trees to anchor the sand and keep it in place. This helps, but the winds can still carry grains of sand aloft. China has now gone to the next level and pioneered the use of cyanobacteria which can create a biocrust which is thick enough to help promote topsoil and prevent erosion, even in the harsh desert environment.

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So when I think of air pollution, I know that it will one day be solved, and harbor some hope it will be sooner rather than later. Estimates range from five to fifty years before meaningful change can occur and the costs are staggering. Whole industries will have to be uprooted and the mix of energy resources will have to be radically changed.

Most youngsters today think of London fog as an upscale fashion brand. Yet after World War II the English capital was plagued by extreme pollution, even worse than we experience on most bad days, much of it, as here, from burning dirty coal. Today, however, London is a breath of fresh air albeit after many years, numerous laws and regulations, and billions of pounds sterling in anti-pollution equipment later.

Yet thinking back to the 2008 Olympics when Beijing and surrounding polluting factories and power generators were stopped, blue sky days returned. So we know that change is possible.

My personal hope is that based on the experience of China's conquest of sandstorms, in part by the use of novel technologies, the air pollution will be controlled in the not too distant future.

The author is a senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice-president of ABC Television in New York.