The system takes into account not only weather patterns that suspend pollutants in the air, but also industry emissions, and flows of vehicles and their emissions – which will differ depending on the day of the week and time of day.
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“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 Beijing worker Fan Jinglong. In late November as well as during the days prior to the upgrade to red, Beijing issued an orange alert, halting construction in the city and urging residents to stay indoors.
Beijing prepared to lift its first ever red alert for smog on Thursday, as blue skies and sunshine replaced the thick haze that covered the city for days.
But this isn’t even the worst level that Beijing’s air quality has reached.
The fake masks were discovered in two batches during inspections at a Shanghai customs site, the state-run China News Service said, adding that many people had been detained in the course of a broader investigation into fake masks.
Li Shixiang, deputy mayor of Beijing, said the efforts to curb the air pollution turned out effective and the government will build more monitoring stations and mobile monitoring vehicles, to provide more information to facilitate the forecast on smog. Over the worst of the bad air days it’s common to see much less activity out on the streets, and for those who are walking or biking around to wear face masks that help alleviate the intake of bad air. They also claim of having managed to increase their primary energy consumption through non-fossil fuel sources by 58% in the year 2013-14 alone.
Beijing has taken a series of emergency pollution control restrictions, ranging from closing industrial operations to reducing road traffic by half.
With the red alert restrictions set to last through Thursday, Beijingers were contemplating how frequently they would have to endure such limits going forward, how they would cope with the inconveniences, and the health effects of living amid constant bouts of toxic air.
The mayor had signed a document outlining problems with the city’s preparedness for smog emergencies, it said.
Data from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba showed searches for air purifiers and masks being made more frequently in several areas hit by heavy pollution this month than elsewhere.
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While we don’t address pollution a lot here at sustainablog, we probably should: most toxins and pollutants that end up in our air, soil, and water are the byproducts of wasteful processes.
