Authorities in Beijing issued the highest level of emergency after inhalable particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) reached levels 10 times higher than recommended.
Advertisement
This week Beijing announced that the air quality levels in the city had become so hazardous to health that a “red alert” was being put into practice.
While this tactic does have some chances of succeeding in humiliating those targeted -honor and dignity are very important in the Chinese society – it will probably do little to curb Beijing’s real problems, which lie with state-operated activities like coal power plants and large construction sites, together with the ever-growing fleet of vehicles.
China has been trying to rein in counterfeiters who have copied everything from Apple iPhones to Louis Vuitton handbags, since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, when it was required to adhere to global standards on intellectual property rights.
Dong Yang, head of China’s automakers association, said on Thursday that sales of electric vehicles can not maintain their current strong growth, and he predicted that pace of growth will slow next year.
Air quality in the Chinese capital improved drastically on Thursday as the threeday red alert issued by the government came to an end at noon. They emphasized that they will “fight well a hard battle to prevent and contain air pollution”, Yahoo News reported. Electricity generation, though still powered largely by coal in China, does offer a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as recent studies about EV use in America’s dirtiest grids confirm. The area is home to 109 million people.
Beijing imposed its first red-alert – the highest on a four-color scale that has been in use for two years- following a forecast of high pollution for three consecutive days.
“Evil pollution invades, and you don’t have a monkey king?” reads another advertisement on BYD’s official microblog, showing a man in a cloud of pollution calling for help from China’s fabled Monkey King hero. India has since taken China’s place as the most polluted country worldwide, with 13 of the 20 most polluted cities.
Advertisement
But now, those cars have packed the roads (and even sidewalks on bad rush-hour days) of China’s ballooning cities, aggravating the toxic air.
