The city, now in the middle of its first-ever emergency “red alert” for air pollution, has closed schools and temporarily taken cars off the road as smog keeps getting worse.
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She wears face masks on most winter days, and she bought an air purifier two years ago, she said. While cities with blue bubbles have clean air, the darker the bubble gets, the more polluted it is.
Subways were packed with passengers as a gray mist blocked the sun and turned familiar landmarks into shadows. The national weather observatory continued to issue an orange alert for air pollution in Shanxi on Tuesday. However, those had initially been forecast to last three days or less, so they did not trigger a red alert. When municipal authorities announced the red alert on Monday evening, Solis, like many Beijing residents, was caught off guard. The media outlet said that hundreds of people, including some preschool-age children, watched a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, and others were ignoring the limitations on the use of their vehicles.
On Tuesday, however, even the previously dismissive Global Times, a nationalist tabloid affiliated with the Communist Party, was taking a bit of a new tack, noting that the American data as well as a chorus of complaints from online commentators known as “big voices” or “big Vs” had spurred the government to act.
Environment Minister Chen Jining vowed on Sunday to punish agencies or personnel who fail to initiate emergency response plans in a timely manner as heavy smog is predicted to last till Wednesday. They also say, “The factories are the main culprits at this point, but they are owned by the leaders”.
Still, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, without a hint of irony, praised China’s contribution to fighting climate change in a commentary written to coincide with climate talks in Paris.
When PM2.5 density in the air goes over 1,000 millimeters per cubic meter, pollution has reached levels seen during the Great Smog of 1952 in London, she said.
The Beijing Education Commission issued a notice last night asking all middle, primary schools and kindergartens to suspend classes during the red alert period. Earlier this year, that requirement was reduced to 200 AQI.
The city of Hengshui, in Hebei, recorded an air quality index level of 500 – the maximum level that can be measured by Chinese authorities.
Air quality in Beijing has averaged in the unhealthy level about 50 percent of the time since 2008, the BBC said.
The decision to issue the red alert despite relatively low numbers also provoked ridicule.
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Meanwhile, some local companies are looking to drum up business. Li Ning, a 33-year-old IT worker, said his child was being looked after by grandparents. We have responsibility to our own people and people of the world.
