Apple Daily reports, on December 7, readings of PM2.5 exceeded 180 micrograms per cubic meter in 18 air pollution monitors in Beijing and the government chose to issue the red alert last evening.
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At least two million cars were taken off the road as Beijing rolled out its emergency response plan following its first-ever red alert for smog.
An “orange alert”, officially the second-highest alert level of the city’s four-step system, had been called last week for the first time this year. However, Beijing’s education commission later followed up with a separate order for schools to close during the three-day alert.
It came a week after thick grey smog shrouded Beijing, cutting visibility severely and sending PM 2.5 levels as high as 634 micrograms per cubic metre.
Smog has been a public health concern in Beijing for years but the government’s response has come under extra scrutiny in the past week because it faced heavy criticism for not issuing a red alert during an earlier episode of hazardous smog.
Despite the red alert order, many residents tried to circumvent the rules.
The China red smog alert may not immediately curb the country’s alarming air pollution, but in the long term, it could play a big role in solving the world’s carbon crisis. Even-worse smog choked elements of northern China together with Beijing last week – with the pollution index soaring past 900.
Every day since then he has walked from Beijing’s old lanes, Tiananmen Square, Bird’s Nest National Stadium to the headquarters of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
A slew of Beijingers said via social media they planned to escape the gloom.
The Beijing City Emergency Office said “still weather, reduced cold temperatures and an increase in humidity” prompted the red alert, according to Xinhua.
“Today wasn’t as serious as the previous time”, said one commenter.
China’s polluted air has had severe health effects. There have been 1.4 million premature deaths in China because of air pollution, according to a study led by Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute and published this year in Nature magazine. Some foreign correspondent colleagues were also jolted into unusual action – they let their staff work at home, which nobody had proposed a week ago when the pollution levels were much, much worse.
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China still depends on coal for more than 60% of its power, despite major investment in renewable energy sources.
