Friday, January 18, 2013

China's pollution worst in the world

Asia-Pacific, Al Jazeera English (aljazeera.com); Wisdom Quarterly
Beijing smog is visible from outer space (ZMEscience.com); Great Wall grueling race
 
Residents fear the outdoors (aljazeera.com).
Residents of Beijing have been refusing to step outdoors due to fears sparked by the dangerous levels of pollutants in the air. The air quality in Beijing on Saturday and Sunday was the "worst on record."
 
This is according to an environmentalist group noting that the pollution levels in the city were at 30-45 times the safety level. The densely populated Chinese capital (Beijing) has been wrapped in thick smog since Friday, reducing visibility and disrupting traffic but the air quality reportedly improved on Sunday.

NPR‘s Louisa Lim reports from Beijing that the smog has affected more than 30 Chinese cities: “China is choking on its own development...new cars...the pollution has been exacerbated by weather patterns, combined with an unusually cold spell. ‘In the winter, we have to burn more coal to get heating,’ says Zhou Rong of Greenpeace (ZMEscience.com).

 
"This is really the worst on record not only from the official data but also from the monitoring data from the US embassy," Zhou Rong, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace said about the hazardous pollution in the city. "Some areas in (neighboring) Hebei province are even worse than Beijing." The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre said that the conditions were likely to last another two days as the heavy pollution is trapped in an area of low pressure. More

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