Schools were closed, building work suspended and restrictions on cars were put in place in Beijing on Tuesday after the Chinese capital issued its first-ever “red alert” for smog.
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An online notice from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said it issued the alert to “protect public health and reduce levels of heavy air pollution”. The city of Shenyang, about 400 miles northeast of Beijing, recently saw it’s higheest pollution levels ever recorded.
A red alert means that 30 percent of vehicles will be taken off the roads, heavy vehicles will be banned, most schools will be advised to cancel classes, businesses are recommended to implement flexible working hours and all “large-scale, outdoor activities” should be stopped.
According to reports, the air quality index showed that smog particles had reached more than 250 micrograms per cubic metre, a level deemed “very unhealthy” and 10 times the World Health Organisation’s maximum safe level. Before, there were only a few cars on the road but now, look, there are more and more. “Now there’s a willingness to face this problem directly”. According to officials, the red alert will be carried out until Thursday of this week. Environmental group Greenpeace called it “a welcome sign of a different attitude from the Beijing government”.
“This is modern life for Beijing people”.
“It is a sharp warning to us that we may have too much development at the price of environment and it is time for us to seriously deal with air pollution”, said Fan, the hotel employee. A study led by atmospheric chemist Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute and published in the journal Nature this year estimated 1.4 million people each year die prematurely because of China’s pollution.
The announcement arrived by the state news agency, Xinhua, which posted on its English-language Twitter account that the restrictions would be in effect, and included a photo of the Bird’s Nest-the stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics-in dark smog and almost invisible. However, he stressed that long-term measures to improve air quality – such as capping coal consumption – are critical to cleaning up China’s atmosphere.
A slew of Beijingers said via social media they planned to escape the gloom.
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.
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“This (smog) problem comes with other climate change issues”.
