I was in China’s capital for about three weeks in 2008, before and after the Olympics, and I was deeply impressed by how awful the air was. The sun was, as I wrote back then: “a pale rumor in leaden skies.” Like nothing I had ever seen in Los Angeles, where I spent my first 20 years.

And that “pale rumor” of a sun was during a period of enforced shutdowns/slowdowns, in August of 2008, by many of the major polluters around Beijing.

People who live there now … are talking about the latest ultra-smog episode. And putting up photos which do a good job of conveying how dirty the air is.

The thing to remember?

Those photos were taken during the day. Not in the half-light of dawn or dusk.

In Beijing for the Olympics, I was immediately impressed by how awful the air was.

The Time magazine story suggests pollution was down a bit, in 2014. In Beijing. Which wouldn’t be hard to do, because if it had continued to get worse, people would have been keeling over in the streets.

I find pollution to be a significant problem in Asia and often one barely acknowledged.

It probably begins with a populace with sectors starving or on the verge. You don’t worry about the air next year when you are hungry today. I get that.

But some of the actors here are doing well enough that they should begin taking steps to combat spiraling pollution issues.

The UAE, for example. This enclave of enormous prosperity recycles … basically nothing. I have squashed thousands of aluminum cans headed for some dump deep in the desert, cans I would take to a recycle center in the U.S.  The notion of a good place to put your trash is … out the window. Then little guys in green jumpsuits sweep it up, the next day.

India is another prime example. It is a country that needs to decide if it’s gaining fast in economic terms or whether it is still too poor to do anything about pollution. One of the sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race, from Team Brunel, did a one-man survey of the Indian Ocean as the fleet maneuvered around the subcontinent, and he said he never went 10 minutes without seeing plastic floating past. And this was hundreds of miles offshore.

And it is about to get worse, as the fleet sails into the notoriously dirty/trashy Strait of Molucca.

(And this comes at a time when a new study warns of mass extinction because of human activities.)

I have previously cited Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel, among other things, and his belief that a First World China, complete with high levels of energy consumption — will break the planet.

When he wrote that, he apparently wasn’t taking into account India, and what might happen when it begins to nudge First World financial success — in tandem with China.

I’m pretty sure most Americans have no idea New Delhi is Beijing’s match, when it comes to dirty air. In this blog item from 2012, I linked to a 24/7 Wall St. story listing the The Ten Cities with the World’s Worst Air — and there in a tie with Beijing at the top was New Delhi.

We have stipulated Beijing is a mess. And so is much of China.

Don’t mean to depress you, but Americans tend not to follow India closely, and it is well on its way to becoming the next China, when it comes to unchecked pollution. And perhaps worse, because China appears to be at least thinking about doing something.