The alert was upgraded from the less severe orange to red on Monday afternoon, according to Xinhua, China’s state news outlet.
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But local authorities last week kept an orange alert, the second-highest warning, although doomsday-like scenes continued for several days, and they have faced criticism from ordinary citizens for that decision.
All schools have been ordered to keep students indoors and adjust classroom activities from Monday to Wednesday, according to Beijing Municipal Commission of Education. This will take effect tomorrow (8 December 2015) at 7am local time.
China’s leadership has vowed to crack down on environmental degradation, including the air pollution that blankets many major cities, following decades of unbridlged economic growth.
Last week, Greenpeace called on Beijing to issue a red alert, after four days of what it called “Airpocalypse”.
The government issues alerts through multiple platforms including TV, radio, newspapers, the internet and text messages.
Air pollution in Beijing is appaling, but air pollution in areas outside and surrounding the city is said to be more horrific. Beijing has sparingly used the more stringent odd-even system for a few months during the Olympic Games in 2008 and for a few weeks of heavy pollution in 2013 when Beijing last issued the red alert.
“At this level of response, schools and kindergartens can remain open, meaning that children are risking their health in order to attend class and vehicle emissions haven’t been restricted at all”, the group wrote. This is the first instance that the capital has issued the red alert.
Automobile emissions account for over 30 per cent of the air pollution in China.
Beijing’s real time air pollution index yesterday recorded an average of between 200 and 260, a level classified as “very unhealthy”.
Readings of PM2.5 particles – harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs – climbed towards 300 micrograms per cubic metre yesterday and are expected to continue rising before the air begins to improve with the arrival of a cold front on Thursday.
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Bad air contributed to 1.6 million deaths a year or roughly 17 percent of all deaths in China, according to the report by Rohde and co-author Richard Muller, in the science journal PLOS One.
