The photograph opposite, of Aberdeen valley, shows the pin-sharp visibility – and excellent air quality – that Hedda Morrison and others took for granted in the Hong Kong of the 1940s. The environmental pressures that Hong Kong faced then were immeasurably less than they are today. The population in 1947 reached about 1.8 million, while today the figure is approaching 7 million. Yet the land area is the same, and modern resource consumption – and the expelling of wastes – is much greater. Any comparison of environments between the two periods must allow for those facts. Nonetheless, by comparison with some other Asian cities that saw rapid postwar economic growth – such as major Japanese cities – Hong Kong lags well behind. As its income and educational levels grew from the 1970s to the 1990s, environmental awareness did not keep pace. Attitudes now are slowly changing, but the territory’s residue of environmental problems is troubling.
 
Air pollution is Hong Kong’s single greatest environmental concern, given its damaging effects on human health; the desire of globally mobile people to live in healthy surroundings; and the impact on tourism, through reduced scenic visibility and personal discomfort.