The Chinese capital issued its first-ever pollution red alert on Monday, with sweeping measures to be introduced, limiting traffic and construction activities.
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The latest round of bad air was the result of factory discharges and unfavorable weather conditions, the state-run China Daily reported, citing National Meteorological Center Senior Engineer Xue Jianjun.
Despite some improvement in Beijing’s air over the past year, readings of risky particles Tuesday were as high as a dozen times the safe level, in what has become an embarrassment for a government that has made a priority of cleaning up the legacy of pollution left from years of full-tilt economic growth. Apart from this, the government orders 30 percent of vehicles off the roads where heavier vehicles are banned, including most schools that are advised to cancel classes and businesses and offices are advised to implement flexible working hours.
According to Environment Minister Chen Jining, he is urging more supervision in Beijing including its surrounding cities such as Tianjin, where the number of environmental inspection teams will be increased from the current 12. Despite the significance of the city’s first red alert, the smog this week is not the worst the city has seen this year.
“Don’t darn well talk about other people, our own pollution is worse than others’ and you still dare to talk like this!” said Wu Chenggang.
Maybe the Air + Style guys will wear these Taobao masks next year.
Auto use is being halved by allowing only odd or even numbered license plates on the road at one time and heavy vehicles including garbage trucks are banned from the streets.
The smog will be dispersed by a cold wave next Thursday, the NMC said.
Beijing hotel staffer Fan Jinglong said the smog forecast was “really worrisome”.
A woman uses her hand to cover her face from pollutants as people walk along a street on a polluted day in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Officials promised additional public transport to cope with demand.
Still, the level of pollution remains risky, Brown said.
The early alert came following criticism that authorities were slow in issuing public alerts last week when the air turned foul after thick smog blanketed Beijing, the city of 21 million for several days. “If today is a red alert, then what was it I was seeing last week?” asked one incredulous user.
“Some people say Beijing may have to endure red alerts five or six times over the winter, if the standard for imposing the highest alert is only three successive days when the air quality index hits 200”. 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.
Beijing doesn’t just have a variety of measures to counter vehicular emissions which include a lottery system to limit vehicle purchases and colour coding of vehicles based on emission compliance, according to Greenpeace East Asia, it has shut down three out of four coal power plants in Beijing.
The China red smog alert takes place as China, considered to be the world’s largest polluter, participates in the Paris Summit where action on carbon emissions were agreed upon.
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The comparison to a gas chamber is all too familiar for another capital city this side of the world, as India’s top court compared New Delhi to a gas chamber and mandated that the state government put in measures to tackle the problem.
