Far fewer than usual pedestrians walked the streets – many of them wearing white masks to filter the air. “The reality is that we have smog”, she said.
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Automakers including Tesla Motors and Beijing Automotive Group’s electric vehicle subsidiary say they have seen an uptick in potential buyers asking about pure electric cars in Beijing because of the pollution – though many don’t dare leave home to do so.
“I have to watch my child because there is no kindergarten today”.
China’s environment ministry said pollutants were reduced by a third in Beijing during this week’s temporary restrictions to reduce heavy smog, which included taking half the city’s cars off the roads. He journaled his trips from the old lanes to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, recording the date, the weather, the area he vacuumed, and a photo of him doing his work.
With the red alert, driving is restricted by limiting the roads to vehicles with odd- and even-numbered license plates on alternate days.
This is the first time a red alert was declared under the four-tier alert system, which was adopted a little over two years ago, although pollution levels were nowhere near the city’s worst. The firm’s Beijing office was almost empty on Wednesday.
While Beijing issued red alert for smog, 27 other cities in the country issued orange alerts which meant “very unhealthy” air.
Counts of PM2.5 – harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs – reached well over 600 micrograms per cubic metre last week, according to the USA embassy, which issues independent readings, and were regularly above 300 in recent days.
The hazardous smog has enveloped much of the Northern China Plain between the East China Sea to the east and mountain ranges to the west. The massive city is surrounded by mountains that help to trap emissions from factories and automobiles-and from the coal-fired boilers that many residents still rely upon for heat.
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Based on data analysis, his group has concluded that the current bout of toxic air and the previous one, which battered Beijing the last weekend of November and was even worse, occurred because winds blew pollutants northward from factories in provinces south of Beijing. Residents are concerned that the polluted air could affect their health, as well as that of the children in the city.
