-
Tips for becoming a good boxer - November 6, 2020
-
7 expert tips for making your hens night a memorable one - November 6, 2020
-
5 reasons to host your Christmas party on a cruise boat - November 6, 2020
-
What to do when you’re charged with a crime - November 6, 2020
-
Should you get one or multiple dogs? Here’s all you need to know - November 3, 2020
-
A Guide: How to Build Your Very Own Magic Mirror - February 14, 2019
-
Our Top Inspirational Baseball Stars - November 24, 2018
-
Five Tech Tools That Will Help You Turn Your Blog into a Business - November 24, 2018
-
How to Indulge on Vacation without Expanding Your Waist - November 9, 2018
-
5 Strategies for Businesses to Appeal to Today’s Increasingly Mobile-Crazed Customers - November 9, 2018
Smog in China closes schools in Beijing
Smog has always been a public health concern in Beijing and the government’s response system has come under extra scrutiny in the past week amid criticism for not issuing a red alert during an episode of heavy smog which exceeded hazardous levels.
Advertisement
Engineer Wang Shaoang drives an electric auto, which are not subject to the odd-even rule, an attempt by the government to promote the use of cleaner vehicles. “It is our right to breathe in fresh air, and right now, we’re being deprived of that right”. However, those had been forecast to last three days or less, so they did not trigger a red alert. “It shows that they recognize it’s a problem – before, it was just like, ‘This is part of the normal development of the country'”.
Despite some improvement in Beijing’s air over the past year, readings of risky particles yesterday 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.
Vehicles travel on the Guomao bridge (bottom L) as the Central Business District (CBD) area is seen amid heavy smog after the city issued its first ever “red alert” for air pollution, in Beijing, China, December 8, 2015.
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.
When Beijing awoke Tuesday morning under a thick haze of some of the worst smog on record, it did so knowing that millions of its citizens would spend the next 2 ½ days stuck inside.
The announcement arrived by the state news agency, Xinhua, which posted on its English-language Twitter account that the restrictions would be in effect, and included a photo of the Bird’s Nest-the stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics-in dark smog and almost invisible. Beijing was also shrouded in persistent smog for most of November, when power demand soared due to unusually cold weather.
Wang said that she regularly checked a phone app to monitor the air quality and that she and her son wore masks outdoors and turned on purifiers at home.
When PM2.5 density in the air goes over 1,000 millimeters per cubic meter, pollution has reached levels seen during the Great Smog of 1952 in London, she said. “Smog surely highlight the urgency of dealing with climate change and consolidate our resolution to resolve it”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
The tiny particulate matter, PM 2.5, can enter the blood stream and then get deposited in the pulmonary alveoli, the tiny balloon-like structures in the lungs that help absorb oxygen, leading to respiratory ailments, heart failure and even premature death.
Some surmised that the move reflected a change in officials’ attitudes more than a change in specific pollution levels that have plagued major cities for decades.
Advertisement
To the extent that Chinese authorities are taking Xi Jinping’s “war on pollution” seriously, the motivating factor is less the environment and more the fed up city dwellers, who are getting pretty exhausted of living inside a poisonous, disgusting cloud for weeks at a time.