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Subscribe to RSSChinese are growing more outspoken about the "fog," now accurately calling it "smog," covering cities like Beijing.
BEIJING—While China’s chief climate negotiator is getting rock star treatment at the Durban climate summit this week, his peers back in the capital are suffering a third straight day of foul air.
As a leading Canadian newspaper put it, China provided “the few glimmers of hope at the stalled negotiations” in Durban, where "photographers and television journalists swarmed around the chief Chinese negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, as he entered a news conference on Monday to announce his list of conditions for considering a legally binding treaty on carbon emissions after 2020."
It seems that despite being the world's biggest carbon emitter, China could be the key to a deal on a legally binding agreement to reduce emissions.
However, not many glimmers of hope could be spotted back home.
From the China Daily website
A grid image posted on the China Daily newspaper showing the dramatic changes in air quality in Beijing in the past four days.
A persistent 'fog'
The Chinese state-run print media all ran headline stories Tuesday morning on the persistent "fog" that has blanketed Beijing and parts of the country’s northeast since the weekend. (See video above of the "hazardous" level of smog on Monday).
Much of the coverage focused on the hundreds of flights cancelled at the Beijing Capital International airport—the world’s second busiest hub—or the rising and very vocal concerns about air pollution. Some local reports referred to sales of air filter masks and air filter machines spiking in the past week.
Still more reports tried to cast the air pollution issue as one of sovereignty. "The heavy fog or smog that has shrouded Beijing in the past couple of days has triggered a renewed round of debate over the different air pollution standards applied by China and the United States," said an opinion piece in the Global Times, a state-run newspaper with a strong nationalist overtone.
But at least these same newspapers are now calling it "smog" rather than "fog," as they were just a day ago. The China Daily, another state-run newspaper, ran a headline on page 3 crying, "Exposure to smog is severe hazard." Later in the day, the paper’s web site posted four stark images of the same location showing changes in air visibility. (See photo above). The images are pretty staggering.
Only 13 days of 'good' air this year so far
And as we write this, the ever-trusty and ever-reliable @BeijingAir Twitter feed has been down five hours, prompting followers to wonder whether the pollution has finally gotten to the air quality index monitor that lives on top of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Post by @TomVandeWeghe
An image of an iPhone app circulating on Twitter this afternoon, showing the @BeijingAir monitor out of commission.
A sobering analysis of the @BeijingAir feed can be found in this post by China Dialogue, which notes that the improvements in air quality claimed by officials at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau "are due to irregularities in the monitoring and reporting of air quality – and not to less polluted air."
Moreover, based on the analysis using the @BeijingAir data, this year there have only been 13 days of "good" air quality.
Buried further amidst the quantitative data was one more alarming point: "…if Beijing’s fine particulate concentration even reached the polluted levels of Los Angeles, life expectancy may increase by over five years."
We at NBC News Beijing are trying to claw back a few months to our life span. We have just taken delivery of two air filter machines for the bureau.
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Once China has to get their pollution under control and pay their people more the competition will begin. When ever possible buy American... check the label before pulling out the credit card.
Once they get in under control? Sorry, wishful thinking on your part. They (the Chinese government) have no concerns about the health of their people and never will. No one will be able to force them to comply with any agreement they sign, so their air and water are only going to get darker.
How much do most of the western world spend on pollution control? China is not an emerging nation, they just decide not to spend anything on the environment. That can be called a trade war. It should be up to the rest of the world to help China become more environmentally conscious by imposing a tax, fee, a fine that will make it not so profitable to ignore the environment while help levelling the foreign trading field.
I agree, but the Chinese will go to the WTO and complain about "unfair" competition and tie it up in discussion for the next thirty years or so. Probably not good for anybody.
I really don't want China to clean up and add the cost to products we buy from them. I don't mind having cheap goods and leave the pollution in situ. It is their land, their water. Air may migrate but not that bad when it reaches our shore. If they want to continue to pollute and pay slave wages to their slave labor, be my guest. The rest of the world will continue to enjoy their products. We've got to insist that their product are of quality and free from contamination, or we will buy it somewhere else, like Africa.
hunting rhinos and elephants to extinction for their ivory, killing sharks solely for their fins to make soup, poaching tigers for aphrodisiacal purposes, selling toxic drywall, selling toxic dog food and tainted milk products, still selling lead based paint. they are finally gettting a taste of their own sickening medicine and practices. when are they going to learn that ALL of us need to work togther, and not ruin the planet to prevent our own extinction?!?! hmmm, i find it curiously strange that they don't poach their own, unique solely to china, panda bears. why poach other countries' animals?????????????????????
China will learn when the smog finally reaches the villas where the ruling class lives. Maybe forty to fifty years from now when Beijing is a morgue.
Is this the same kind of fog that required the city hosting the olympic games be closed to most motor vehicle traffic during the olympics? cannot imagine an olmpic athlete having a hard time breathing and competing if it is only fog.
I look at these pictures and I start having trouble breathing.
This looks like some future SY FY horror scene remember the movie Blade Runner? but on a real bad day.
It was cold damp and wet looking it was a future look of a dirty looking cross between China town and a rainy day in London.
This is horrible to see right now in real time.
I can't imagine another 20 years of this sh-it we will be living underground or in domes or with masks.
The poor will be outside on the streets dying from lack of air to air contaminants.
What a mess we better hurry up and find that new 2nd Earth real fast because we are going to need it.
1. We will all be dying - the article mentions that masks don't really help enough.
2. We better find that 2nd Earth in this Solar System. We have no hope of reaching any other system any time soon (like the next fifty years).
True, but one can always hope yes?
Hope? yes you can hope if it makes you feel better.
Is this the same kind of fog that required the city hosting the olympic games be closed to most motor vehicle traffic during the olympics? cannot imagine an olmpic athlete having a hard time breathing and competing if it is only fog.
What your seeing in China is what you see worldover when Business/Government is let run loose. It doesn't matter where or when in history or the future. Trillions have been spent in space projects over 60 years and not much for cleaning up the business/government messes world wide. From Lead in Chocolate to arsenic in ground water and food. You name it governments have encouraged it's happening by giving out encentives and looking the other way until so badly cought they the leaders resign after passing a no legality clause for their decisions.
I witnessed the mess in the Los Angeles area in the early 70's. As it rolled in from the sea envelloping the homes and driving pushed by the wind up the valleys from the overnight exit to the sea. By mid morning a beautiful day had turned into a throat burning, eyes watering, coughing, hard to really catch ones breath until exiting the 150 mile area later in the day, never will I return to California much less travel to China. Once was enough for a life changer to me..
There must be a way to blame this on Sarah Palin. I miss her. C'mon what has happened to the liberal imagination?
So you are saying the human race can't exist in harmony with nature ! Unless only a few humans exist that is and they the remaining few will pee on a bush. The Chinese Official all have filtration systems installed in their homes so to have pure, filter air to breath. Hahahahahahahahahahaha Dumb Chinese.
Why don't we just remove all of our environmental controls and we can have the same thing. That's what some seem to want.
Is this the same kind of fog that required the city hosting the olympic games be closed to most motor vehicle traffic during the olympics? cannot imagine an olmpic athlete having a hard time breathing and competing if it is only fog.
Is this the same kind of fog that required the city hosting the olympic games be closed to most motor vehicle traffic during the olympics? cannot imagine an olmpic athlete having a hard time breathing and competing if it is only fog.
Lets not take any credit for the pollution...We are civilized.
Okay...Perhaps all the crap we buy from China has an effect on the smog too...Or is it easier to deny that while you shop at Walmart?
We have a part in this problem people...Can't have a global market, without a global problem being owned by the globe too.
Buy local...Buy American when you can...Buy used...I am making all my gifts this year....
Peace
Comparing our standards to the Chinese isn't reality. If you protest over there, you get shot and they don't care what the rest of the world thinks. Protest in the USA and obama and his chicage crooks will give you a medal. In the life time of our country, has everything bad that happened been the fault of the Rebublicans? Have the Demecrats ever done anything wrong? I hear how evil Bush is and how he lied to get us involved in Iraq, where 4,500 american military lost their lifes. Who got us into the war With Vietnam? Wasn't kennedy was it? How many american military lost there lifes there and how many were spit on when they returned to America and how many new citizens did Canada gain?
Eisenhower(R) was the one who started Vietnam.
It was, at the time, known as French Vietnam.
Thanks for playing.
We are the second biggest polluter, but I guess that doesn't matter as long as we are not the biggest...I blame the unemployed and everyone who earns more than the minimum wage....oh, and the President and the Liberals! Give the polluters a tax break.....oh we already have. There's nothing like cleaning up your own mess, but why do it, if you can get away with it?
You mean their factories and refineries are not self-policing their own toxic emissions like ours do?
I don't believe a refinery owner would place profits over public health.
An example of why the Kyoto treaty is a sham. It penalizes the US by having to absorb the cost of emissions controls while countries like China don't.
eating fish is one of my main diets but i always look at the labels to make sure it's not from China!! Almost all Grocery stores that sell fish is from there! especially Walmart and Kroger's!
Money is more important than health obviously. So what if we kill ourselves, at least we'll be rich corpses.
/sarcasm
Given the level of pollutants, might that not be rich Zombies? :)
i'm pretty sure that the chinese propaganda that it is fog didn't fool the people that cough and gag breathing their "fresh and misty" air.
TIme is long overdue for import tarrifs on products made in countries with unfair manufacturing advantages due to lax pollution standards, lax worker safety standards, and lack of human rights (freedom aint free). Until the pinheads in DC level the playing field, BOYCOTT crap from China, including Apple gadgets.
But I believe China belongs to the WTO and tariffs are not free trade! **tongue firmly in cheek** Also it is pretty much infeasible to boycott Chinese products as most of them (parts of other products) are not labeled as such.
Just everyone be quiet ----let the damn chinks suffocate them selves.
China has paid a terrible price for being the world's factory producing MADE IN CHINA items for the consumption of the world at an affordable price. BY doing so, more energy is needed and hence more coal-fired power plants which in turn discharge toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. This is aggravated further with extra pollution resulting from the production process. All these have an adverse effort on the health Chinese populace.
Instead of showing China with gratitudes for the sacrifies she made, what we have seen are malice accusation and innuendos on china being the polluters and taking jobs from people. This is how people pay the hand that feeds them.
China's government made their people suffer (no voluntary sacrifices here) in order to make themselves the manufacturing center for the entire world. This is the result that could have easily been foreseen when they started the process. Yet they grabbed for this opportunity with both hands. They are just as greedy as another group of people you can name. "More for me whatever it costs anyone else." is their motto. Show them gratitude? Never.
May be USA should start manufacturing things locally which brings job back. But in the process, increase the pollution level 10 folds and receiving finger pointing.
After living in Beijing for 3 months this summer, I can tell you that I loved experiencing their beautiful culture, living in such a historic city, and meeting exceptionally kind and welcoming people. I can also tell you that had it not been for the intolerable amount of pollution in the city, we would have stayed longer; possibly for many years to come. For nearly half the time, I was sick with upper-respiratory issues that persisted even a month after we returned to the States. Some days, I couldn't see the CCTV tower from my window, then other days I would be able to see the mountains in the distance. The variance was peculiar and alarming on those hazy days. Spitting my phlegm nearly every 15 minutes became the norm because, well, I had no other choice and then realized why everyone else living there practiced the same behavior. Beijing is attempting to decrease the pollution by limiting the number of cars that can drive in a day and by improving their transit system. While the bus and subway are excellent ways to get around, many people still choose to drive cars simply for the luxury of it. Limiting the number of cars that can drive in a day, based on the letter of your license plate (A-G can drive Mondays, H-N can drive Tuesdays, etc) is flawed because many families own multiple vehicles with different license plate letters anyway. Oddly enough, the pollution didn't affect my husband one iota, but that doesn't mean that the effects aren't long-lasting, and for someone who researches cancer for a living, I could not subject myself, my husband, and our future child(ren) to that level of pollution, no matter how much we fell in love with the country and people of China. If we move to China, it will have to be to another city than Beijing until this issue is resolved (which I expect won't be in our lifetime).