Despite Beijing’s intentions in drastically improving the quality of its air, the city’s officials are aware that imposing the rules on citizens will be hard since they were only given a day to adjust to the emergency warning.
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Polluted air throughout broad swaths of China has had severe health effects.
The government’s refusal to issue a red alert last week led to the frustration of many mask-wearing residents, who vented their anger on social media and widely circulated photos of smog-darkened skies.
The Chinese government on Tuesday ordered 30 percent of vehicles off the roads, banned heavy vehicles, told schools to cancel classes and urged companies to offer flexible working hours to employees, while canceling most outdoor events. Since 2000, Kong has displayed three performance art pieces to convey her concern about environmental protection and concept of loving nature. Charcoal briquette-burning ovens that were once a major contributor to pollution are now much less common in Beijing, although they are still used widely in the countryside.
Northern and eastern China have been choking under heavy smog for most of this week, and an orange alert for air pollution remained in force for the eastern province of Shanxi on Tuesday.
Although Beijing has in recent years seen smog at much worse levels than Tuesday’s, the latest bout of pollution was the first to trigger a red alert under a two-year-old system that requires a forecast at the outset of at least 72 hours of consecutive high pollution.
“It is going to involve some very challenging actions like stopping half of the cars”, Ma Jun of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs said according to The Guardian.
“So many people had been raising questions then that this time I think there’s some new thinking, that even if there are some uncertainties about the weather forecast, we should still follow the criteria”, Mr Ma said.
The government should start developing a more responsive alert system, which takes into account real-time readings of pollution levels as well as how long the bad air conditions would last, analysts said.
At a side event at the Paris climate talks, Kerry addressed business owners and promised the USA administration was “looking for ways to facilitate (their) choices”.
According to Gizmodo, China is having lots of trouble lately with air quality.
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“We were just informed the primary school will be shut for three days”, said Li Xia, 35, who has an eight-year-old daughter. We have responsibility to our own people and people of the world.
