The Beijing government issues the capital’s first ever pollution “red alert” on Tuesday.
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“I feel like I’m engaged in chemical warfare”, one commuter said on social media.
“If you look to China they really like British products”. She said in an interview from Kunming that they hectically packed before dawn Tuesday for their flight.
His idea was sparked after constantly hearing about the reports of the awful air quality in Beijing.
A cold front on Thursday predicted by forecasters is expected to clear the smog. The pollution index reached 440 when measured contained in the respiratory ward, almost 20 times the World Health Organization’s advisable level. A team of inspectors found that many construction sites had not stopped work during a round of spot checks when Beijing was smothered in smog in late November, Liu said, and site managers said they had not received any orders to suspend work.
A Beijing resident who gave his only his surname, Du, said he was taking advantage of a lack of crowds near the capital’s ancient Forbidden City to stroll and take unique photographs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index soared to 343 in Beijing, according to a real-time pollution map provided by aqicn.org as part of its global project.
According to the New York Times, Chinese cities, especially those in the north, are known to be some of the world’s biggest air polluters, with industrial coal burning playing a major role.
“What folks may not realize is that the EPA has had a strong relationship with China for a very long time”, McCarthy said.
Beijing was under an orange alert over the weekend but was upgraded to a red alert for this week. The alert requires a forecast of more than 72 hours with PM2.5 levels of 200 microgrammes per cubic metre or more. State radio said some people were ignoring vehicle use restrictions, which banned vehicles with odd numbers at the end of the licence plate getting on the roads, though the roads were noticeably quieter. Residents are concerned that the polluted air could affect their health, as well as that of the children in the city. A study conducted by atmospheric chemist Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute was published in Nature magazine this year revealed that more than 1.4 billion people die premature death because of pollution in China every year.
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China has reduced emissions and invested in renewable energies such as solar power or wind, but the country still depends on coal for more than 60 per cent of its power.
