State-run Xinhua news agency said more than 200 expressway toll gates in east China’s Shandong province were closed on Monday due to smog. “You feel light-headed”, says McClatchy News’ Beijing bureau chief Stuart Leavenworth about the thick cloud of smog that’s settled over the city the past five days.
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Public anger over air pollution has been a driving force in pushing China to back a possible global climate agreement in Paris. A primary school in the Xicheng district on the west side sent a message to parents that classes were cancelled December 1.
“The air pollution is all-encompassing, and it requires both the government and individuals to shoulder the responsibility to clean up the air”, said Liu Juntang, a businessman whose company develops environmental technology.
China’s cities are among the world’s dirtiest after three decades of economic growth that led to construction of hundreds of coal-fired power plants and the spread of automobile ownership.
The US Embassy’s air quality monitor rated Beijing’s smog as beyond the index for much of Tuesday, a level above the 301-500 band considered hazardous to health. The situation was particularly risky in southern Beijing, where airborne particles smaller than PM2.5, which means 2.5 microns in diameter, were measured at up to 900 micrograms per cubic meter – 35 times the recommended level.
In Beijing, residents and visitors face the issue first-hand, struggling through the city’s dense air wearing face masks to protect themselves from the pollution. The smog was so bad that government authorities issued an orange alert, the second-highest level, for the first time since February 2014.
Intense pollution – dubbed the “airpocalypse” – also garroted the capital in 2013 when readings approached 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter.
“It looks a bit like doomsday” in Beijing at the moment, said Xiang Wei, a 29-year-old securities analyst.
Residents in northern China have been told to stay indoors after air pollution in Beijing and neighboring regions rose to hazardous levels.
Most emissions come from coal burning which spikes in winter along with demand for heating, which also causes smog. The WHO safety limit is only 25 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter.
Reducing coal use and promoting cleaner forms of energy are set to play a crucial role in China’s pledges to bring its climate warming greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by around 2030.
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Beijing authorities have blamed the smog on “unfavourable weather”, with no wind to disperse the pollution.
