Well kinda happens when everyone is burning plastic and rubber tyres. My wife went there for work, she said you could smell it in the entire city and it was unbearable.
Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, and a lot of the people still live like nomads even there, so there's a lot of wood and coal burning in homes in the winter.
You can't provide infrastructure in the mountains when a lot of people live like nomads.
I traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this winter for work and it can get even worse than the picture. As you drive through the city from the airport you see multiple coal plants. They are not on the outskirts but rather smack dab in the middle of the city. The entire city is in a valley and the weather there makes it so all of the smog just settles. As others have mentioned, much of the population burns straight coal in furnaces in their homes which contributes heavily to the issue. The amount of cars and traffic surely doesn't help either. Having lived in LA, I thought I had experienced traffic, but nothing prepared me for Ulaanbaatar traffic. Their public transport is pretty much non-existent.
suitcasepimp on February 9th, 2023 at 15:03 UTC »
Well kinda happens when everyone is burning plastic and rubber tyres. My wife went there for work, she said you could smell it in the entire city and it was unbearable.
Thomas_Catthew on February 9th, 2023 at 16:20 UTC »
I remember seeing this video a few years ago.
https://youtu.be/qlJbMKHR3Wc
Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, and a lot of the people still live like nomads even there, so there's a lot of wood and coal burning in homes in the winter.
You can't provide infrastructure in the mountains when a lot of people live like nomads.
Syben on February 9th, 2023 at 18:46 UTC »
I traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this winter for work and it can get even worse than the picture. As you drive through the city from the airport you see multiple coal plants. They are not on the outskirts but rather smack dab in the middle of the city. The entire city is in a valley and the weather there makes it so all of the smog just settles. As others have mentioned, much of the population burns straight coal in furnaces in their homes which contributes heavily to the issue. The amount of cars and traffic surely doesn't help either. Having lived in LA, I thought I had experienced traffic, but nothing prepared me for Ulaanbaatar traffic. Their public transport is pretty much non-existent.