BAD AIR: In recent weeks, Beijing air has been enduring sooty air thanks largely to coal burning.
Image: Flickr/Ulrich Thumult
For those living outside China, Beijing's smoggy air is scary but remote. For those who have been living with the past three weeks of foul air, it's a call to action.
Last month, Beijing hit record levels of air pollution, engulfing the city with smog 20 times higher than world safety levels. Airlines have grounded flights because of low visibility, the government is urging residents to stay indoors, and, according to Twitter postings, Swiss-made IQAir home air purifiers are going for $2,300, more than twice their normal price.
The dark, sooty air that shrouded the Beijing region gave ample evidence that, although China's leaders have been pushing clean technology, implementing it at home is a job that remains undone. Continuing widespread use of coal and low-grade diesel fuel, which also produce fine particles of soot, leaves China's record as the world's largest single source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions unchallenged.
"Hmm ... 866 micrograms," Robert Earley, a director at the nonprofit Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation in Beijing, wrote on his Facebook page under a picture of himself wearing a respirator. The level far exceeded the World Health Organization's guidelines of no more than 25 micrograms of PM 2.5 (fine particles) per cubic meter. "That's almost a milligram," he wrote. "That's a lot. Loving the air purifier tonight."
Blue skies have long been a rare sight in Beijing. Since the 2008 Olympics, when government leaders made a national effort to clean the air, experts say the city's smog has become even worse. Coal consumption is soaring, and according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country burned 325 million tons last year alone, putting China's coal demand at 47 percent of global consumption (ClimateWire, Jan. 30).
But this latest and prolonged spate of smog has both residents and foreigners pressuring the government for change.
"I see it as a system failure exposed in a bad weather condition," said Gang He, a doctoral candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. "Beijing has a basin topography, where air pollutants are easy to accumulate but hard to diffuse."
He explained that Beijing frequently has temperature inversions that prevent the wind from blowing out smog and particulates like soot and dust. And more of them accumulate in the winter when coal-fired home heating and dense traffic combine to produce the worst air conditions.
The government, he argued, has to first figure out the real sources of air pollutants in order to adopt the right measures. That would be followed by a long-requested monitoring and reporting system to inform the public about real environmental conditions. The next step would be to phase out the coal-burning home heating systems and reduce automobile emissions. Finally, the government should set up a policy framework that combines basic research, city transportation planning, environmental responses and governance direction in relation to human behavior.
Greeting the 'cough air'
He recently traveled from Guangzhou in southern China to Beijing by high-speed train in nine hours. He said he was greeted by the "Beijing cough air" and witnessed the "magical realism" of China's development. He asserted China must be transformed into a better place to live amid its fast infrastructure development.
In an attempt to soothe concerns, Chinese leaders have brought government vehicles to a halt and temporarily shut down some factories. But the government has not rolled out any extensive policy directives that would require the joint efforts of various commissions to combat pollution.
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9 Comments
Add CommentWe all know that the large environmental challenges also spawn evolution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe will see something like the Morlocks evolve in China since it will be so dark there that huge big eyed creatures might take hold.......
Just kidding.
Morlocks! Hahahahaha! I love it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey're literally choking on their own success. The real disaster is they volunteered for this consequence - a quarter of a century ago, the examples of Europe and America already told them not to base their growth on 'the fireplace'. Instead they embraced cheapest-production sources. It's a pity the rulers and players can't be held accountable to the people suffering for it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs China faces the dire consequences of largely unregulated growth it will have to implement some standards and restrictions to protect it's people and environment. China's lack of regulation has been a big contributor to its competitive edge, as projects are easier and less expensive to carry out when there's no restrictions or oversight.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo how will China fare in the world economy when it's regulatory environment starts to look more like those of western nations? Will China's rampant corruption spill over to where regulators become extortionists? This is a much more complicated economic situation than what China has now... it will be interesting to see what happens.
I am hopeful that this record Smog Nightmare will prompt Chinese officials to implement effective policies and environmental regulations that will greatly reduce the amount of air (and water)pollution in China. Doing so will cost the Chinese people some money (as well as the rest of the world who buy cheap Chinese products), but doing so will prompt innovation and show good example to the rest of the world that will ultimately improve quality of life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow quickly you forget that the USA had one of the worst environmental track records until several "Liberal" (by today's standards anyway) policies like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Drinking Water Act were passed. If you think China's environmental probelms stem from too much regulation, you are delusional. You do know which party has been rabidly anti-regulation (except for what people do with their own bodies), right?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore seriously considering political implications, especially international, it would be very interesting to poll other nearby international cites (Tokyo, Manila, etc.) downwind of China to determine whether their air quality is being effected by China's policies...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisY'all do realize, I hope, that the Chinese government has absolute power? Nothing other countries, or their own people, do (think Tiananmen square) will influence their decisions. They will do whatever They determine will most benefit Them. They are enjoying the benefits of favorable trade with the rest of the world for now, but they are not dependent on it and have a long memory. They could still reclose the borders if they so chose and we could do nothing about it. Absolute power, it corrupts absolutely.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey are utterly dependent on international trade to prop up their growth. When taking these environmental nightmares into account, they HAVE to grow at 8% or more per year just to "cancel" them out...As if environmental destruction, rampant health problems and thousands of premature deaths per year can be "cancelled out" by exporting more cheap, plastic crap, but I digress...
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