The NY Times [subscription may be required] has put together an interesting series of articles and multimedia examining the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China’s epic pollution crisis. In particular, a good slide show, video piece and a killer interactive map of China.

Click here to check it out.

Question for the students who have been to and seen China — how is China’s current developmental stage and the environmental pollution that goes along with it different than what the US, Japan, Korea, etc. went through as part of their respective industrial revolutions?

As an aside, I still have a cough from the Beijing pollution when we were there in July.

Having said that, that will in no way stop me from returning, and soon — there are just too many interesting things to see in China (and the rest of Asia), too many interesting people to meet, and too much business opportunity to experience. My DNA can’t help but resist against the “oh, isn’t it paradise here and aren’t we wonderful” blah, blah, blah self-congratulatory provincialism of California, SLO and Cal Poly.

Yes, we are lucky and fortunate, no doubt, but criminey, let’s get over it, stop patting ourselves on the back, and let’s move on and continue to strive to step out of our comfort zones. I will go to my grave pushing back, every time, against this mentality and paradise koolaid that some drink without question or critical analysis.

There’s just too much out there that’s cool that we don’t know that’s business related that our students and the American citizenry need to see, do and experience that goes way beyond and way deeper than just seeing the Eiffel Tower at night with a girlfriend or boyfriend, having that nice, expensive pasta dinner at a sidewalk cafe in Florence, Italy, or pub hopping with buddies in London, Vancouver or Madrid — all nice, to be sure; but also too quaint, too easy, and way too comfortable for my taste.

Okay, enough venting and preaching. You get the point. Get back to the NY Times link above, click away, and enjoy those visual learning materials!