The worst smog ever
With a thick smog wrapping the Chinese capital since Friday, the city’s pollution monitoring center warned the city’s 20 million residents to stay indoors.
Data posted on Sunday by the monitoring center showed particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) had reached more than 600 micrograms per square metre at some monitoring stations in Beijing, and was as high as 900 on Saturday evening.
The recommended daily level for PM2.5 is 20, according to the World Health Organisation. Such pollution has been identified as a major cause of asthma and respiratory diseases.
“This is really the worst on record not only from the official data but also from the monitoring data from the U.S. embassy — some areas in (neighboring) Hebei province are even worst than Beijing,” said Zhou Rong, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace.
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Paging Tom Friedman.
rbj on January 13, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Yet , lets put ourselves at a huge disadvantage so it makes it much more likely that companies will move to china to benefit from less regulations…
Plus, this should be a fun debate with GW people. When they cry “we gotta do much MORE!!!” just point to this and say it wont matter anyways.
watertown on January 13, 2013 at 4:34 PM
Calling DarkCurrent to propagandize for China.
Schadenfreude on January 13, 2013 at 4:35 PM
Funny how we need strong central planning to fight pollution, but the countries that have the most centralized planning are the worst polluters.
Flange on January 13, 2013 at 4:40 PM
We desperately need to export the entirety of the EPA to China as soon as possible.
tom daschle concerned on January 13, 2013 at 4:41 PM
Where is Dark Current to tell us this is bullsh!t?
JPeterman on January 13, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Since science has become so politicized, I’d keep an open mind about it. Sure there is smog, but is it smog!!!!11!!!!!!???
Blake on January 13, 2013 at 5:00 PM
Pollution is a product of liberal imagination. The smog is the wealth being trickled down onto the masses in form of valuable particles. If only we abolished the EPA we could also benefit from smog as well as other so called pollutants.
lester on January 13, 2013 at 5:03 PM
If liberals HAD imagination, they wouldn’t all be Communists. And atrocities like this would go the way of the Koncentration Kamps.
logis on January 13, 2013 at 5:14 PM
A billion Chinese all waving fans at the same time would clear all the smog out….
albill on January 13, 2013 at 5:14 PM
Actually you are almost right, though I recognize a liberal in sarcastic mode.
Those Countries without industry, their citizens die from natural causes and much earlier that those Countries with industry. Life was once brutish and short but as Ayn Rand noted every Nation that had smokestacks the lifespan grew. When given free reign, Liberals outlaw things like DDT leading to millions of deaths and they sleep well at night. The poverty and suffering they induce is never held in account.
Bulletchaser on January 13, 2013 at 5:15 PM
Hey, Jackie Chan, we may be the most corrupt, but at least our air is clean!
behiker on January 13, 2013 at 6:06 PM
I’m glad the Kyoto treaty exempted third world countries like China because we all know most pollution comes from the first world.
Odysseus on January 13, 2013 at 6:21 PM
Oddly enough, this problem likely has nothing to do with industrial mechanization Beijing has had this exact same problem for over 1000 years. It has to do with wind patterns and dust from the Gobi Desert. L.A. is the same way.
SWalker on January 13, 2013 at 6:36 PM
I spent over a year in L.A. — where I biked to work — and about a week in Beijing — where I rode the subway. The only time I got asthma in my adult life was when I chose to walk instead of taking the one-stop subway trip in the latter city. While accumulation of particles does indeed have a lot to do with climate/geography, this is not unrelated to human effects: The type of pollutants and the Asian Dust problem have a lot to do with human action in the various (currently and formerly Communist) nations in the Central-East Asia (China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc.).
calbear on January 13, 2013 at 7:19 PM
Actually it’s quite true.
DarkCurrent on January 13, 2013 at 7:57 PM