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Subscribe to RSSAir quality in Beijing and other areas of northern China is reaching dangerous levels due to smog conditions and sandstorms. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
BEIJING — Beijing and other parts of northern China were stung by hazardous air pollution levels Thursday as strong winds blew a sandstorm through the region.
Air in the capital turned a yellowish hue as sand from China's arid northwest blew in, turning the sky into a noxious soup of smog and dust.
At 6 a.m. local time, the U.S. Embassy's air quality index showed a reading of 516 for particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Known as PM2.5, such particles are considered particularly dangerous because they can lodge deeply in the lungs. On the American air pollution index, the air at that time and throughout much of the morning was classified as "beyond index."
Feng Li / Getty Images
A composite photograph shows Beijing's skyline during Thursday's sandstorm, top, and during good weather on Feb. 19.
The developers of the U.S Embassy's air monitoring station had planned for an index capped at 500. The World Health Organization suggests that 24-hour exposure to PM2.5 should be limited to levels of 25 on that scale.
Beijing's municipal government issued a yellow-haze warning late Wednesday while state media urged citizens to stay indoors or to take precautions such as donning face masks before venturing outside.
Across northern China in provinces including Hebei, Hubei, Jiangsu and Inner Mongolia, air monitoring stations recorded readings over 500, and visibility across the region was severely curtailed. In some places visibility was below 3,200 feet, leading to highway closures, suspension of high-speed train services and the cancellation of flights from Beijing International Airport.
By mid-afternoon, pollution levels had fallen and strong winds had pushed much of the remaining cloud cover from the capital.
Geographically close to the Gobi Desert, Beijing and other northern cities are particularly susceptible to sandstorms such as Thursday's. Sandstorms are prevalent in late winter and spring as melting frost frees sand and strong winds kick it up and push it eastward.
The start of 2013 has brought chronic bad air to much of China. In January, air pollution readings were so bad that they were compared to living in an airport smoking lounge. That comparison was underscored by record high levels of PM2.5 on Jan. 12, when readings topped out at 755 on the air quality index.
Frustration over China's continued pollution problems popped up across Chinese social media. But irritation over the long-brewing issue was perhaps best summed up by a viral photo originally posted on popular Web portal QQ.com of an unhappy looking Yao Ming, grimacing at the Beijing sky.
Adrian Bradshaw / EPA
People in Beijing endure a noxious and potentially dangerous mix of sand and fine particulate pollution on Thursday, after a sandstorm blew in from the Gobi Desert.
Yao, the former NBA All-Star and current member of a Communist Party advisory board known as the China People's Political Consultative Conference, is currently in Beijing in the lead-up to next month's National People's Congress.
The congress will mark the final step in China's once-in-a-decade leadership change as party heads Xi Jinping and Le Keqiang formally take over as China's president and prime minister, respectively.
Since taking over China's ruling Communist Party late last year, the new leaders have spoken repeatedly about improving the mainland's environment.
Many China watchers believe that China's environmental degradation -- underscored by severe air pollution, contaminated soil and dirty waterways -- will be a focal point during the congress.
This story was originally published on Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:46 AM EST
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The Chinese are living the 1970's version of the US on a 100 time scale. Make your good choices now or you will smother yourselves to death and likely the whole planet..........
As anyone who flew in on a plane to Los Angeles in the early 1970's can attest. What a pretty color of bright orange that was..... NOT!!!
Hummmmmmmmmmm It's their problem ... they will manage and solve it ... without our interference ..
IXLR8----In western China they are running out of water. The farmers that are still left have to drill deeper and deeper into the water table to get what water they need. This has become and endless battle for them. Then we have to remember that all of that bad air is headed our way.
Hopefully as more Chinese die from pollution they will start paying attention to protecting the environment... or they will simply relax their one child rule. Want to bet which one it is going to be?
Just use that left over lead paint and drop it over the desert. Problem solved.
Where will they go when their country is no longer habitable?
Monterey Park
Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch area
China is producing pollution at alarming levels, this will be a Country in crisis within 10 years if they don't smarten up.
If our Government had no other function but to ensure clean air and drinking water I would be ok with that.
The last sentence should really read: "China's environmental degradation -- underscored by severe air pollution, contaminated soil and dirty waterways -- will be their complete undoing as a nation, a culture, and even their existence on planet Earth."
kevin, but the Clean Air/Water Acts in the U.S. are detrimental as regulations against the GOP/Corporations ever-consuming need for that liquid gold/natural gas profits, no matter the ecological concerns for the land, water and air, and health concerns of Americans. What's a few 'deaths' from long term exposure compared to 'energy independence.'
To hell with them--they made this mess so let them clean their mess up!
And just to think that Obama wants our children to be educated just like those In China.
Wonder is this what he also wants for the Amercian Public. He supports Fracking but Fracking Pollutes the water---so what is next? China is filthy yet he wants us to compete with them.
As much as China has grown it's still an emerging nation. And yes we went through the same thing. Nuclear waste dumping, massive smog especially in LA which is why a car in LA has more stringent emissions than the rest of the country, polluted rivers etc. We went through it and now so are they. Difference is they have 5 times the population which makes their problem 5 times worse.
Gratz on the most nonsensical and idiotic comment of the day. The majority of China's air pollution comes from burning coal in power plants. Obama has been trying from Day 1 to promote green energy instead coal. And please explain how pumping water mixed with chemicals 2,000 feet underground is going to give us air pollution like China's.
Yep, stupid post, sir.
And if we don't proceed with the pipeline Canada will ship its oil over there. I wish the clean air people would get it through their thick heads that CO2 admissions are a world problem. Blocking the pipeline will only exacerbate the problem. Here, we have pollution control. All China seems to believe in is unregulated expansion.
Pollution can be a global problem, but it's also local. Our cities have made big strides towards cleaner air. Why would we want to go backwards? Don't you like breathing? The people of Beijing sure wish they had our standards.
After refining the oil, it would be sold on the open market and probably go to China anyway.
Glutinous coal and fossil fuel consumption casuses this. We all know it! Think about this the next time you hear politicians pushing the Drill Baby Drill argument. This is our future too.
Invest in clean energy - your children's lives depend on it.
Wow Gil...
Hummmmmmm ... "Glutinous coal and fossil fuel consumption casuses this. We all know it!"
Perhaps you might explain how "Glutinous coal and fossil fuel consumption..." causes Sandstorms?
I am a environmentalist and want to support realist environmental issues ... BUT wonder what we are to do when gas is unavailable at a reasonable price, people can't stay warm, and electricity is rationed because supplies are made unavailable because of lack of supply caused by "environmental concerns"
It seems practical to have a solution in hand, before interrupting your supplies, and causing revolt & chaos ...
A "Smart" government would have resolved this issue 25 years ago ....
China's answer to energy was to be the Three Gorges Dam, the largest damn in the world.
Gil-2872519, you obviously do not realize that the pollution produced in a specific country stops at that country's international borders! There are no air currents that circumnavigate the globe that would distribute the pollution worldwide.
The Keystone danger is also to aquifers that it passes over. Shale oil is not simple crude oil, it has to have a variety of additional (harmful to the environment) additives so that it will flow through thwe pipe.
The Keystone Pipeline controversy is not just about who gets the tar-sands oil, but about a pipeline to move a substance highly acidic, abrasive and corrosive that crosses watersheds and wilderness. It is guaranteed to eat through the line and leak - badly and often. What good are laws when you've irremediably contaminated water, land, air? China will learn its lesson, maybe early, maybe late. But it is far better to let Canada port that stuff over there than to run a seam down the middle of America just to give the Koch brothers an edge in the market. You must know that it will be sold to China, one way or another, don't you? Either by Canada or (after polluting the route) by the Kochs.
It will go to the highest bidder (open market) the US doesn't have a contract for the oil !
The governor has already approved an alternate route around the aquifer and there are already thousands of pipelines across it now. This would actually increase reliability since it is new and will use the latest engineering and technology.
This will help the US because we can more often than not be the highest bidder. We don't have to include shipping costs in our bid because it's already here. We would only have to pay for trucking, China, etc. would have to pay for shipping AND trucking.
Also, our refineries are regulated by the EPA, China's are not. We'd get China's unregulated pollution vs. ours which would be much less.
Phil,
By being "regulated by the EPA" make all the left over toxic materials, after refining, go away? Maybe it would be best to have the Chinese deal with the pollution instead of us handling the dirty end of their needs.
The IndoChinese countries downstream from China's dams are not too happy with their cut water supply. That can't end well.
S Williams . curious if you also say those tiny leaks in the Canadian Pipeline---they were phtographed and made public. YET Canada buried the pipe with these leak holes prior to being inspected!
Is this what the USA wants too---tiny little leaks in that pipeline, yet the oil corps will bury it prior to reinspection !
What a grand scam the oil corps have with Governments, the USA included.
Way to shove in that pipeline even though its completely unrelated. And everything you said is bs.
It is not the Canadian pipeline, either to the USA or a Pacific Port, that is the major environmental hazard...
Research the sediment ponds and what their plans are for the trailings....
So, how many $billions of our tax money will soon be spent to help our "friends" in China clean up their air?
I don't know if you watch the news closely or not, but we owe China trillions of dollars.
Jerry0
The Chinese hold roughly a trillion in US debt...meaning each and every US citizen owes the Chinese just over $3,000...
and we still send them aid....why?
Even after our bought and paid for congress found out about these scum bags stealing every GD Friggin secret they can from us, our corrupt congress still lines up to kiss their stinking rotting a$$es.
Keep up the good work congress, you are among the most corrupt bodies of government in the world.
It was Biden that bragged about the big wind turbine purchase from China and a lot of infrastructure is being built out by Chinese companies, our Corrupt president still lines up to kiss their stinking rotting a$$es.
Keep up the good work Obama, your continued trillion dollar deficits mean China, etc. have you bought and paid for.
If you want to know about corruption ask why Obama funneled over $2 billion to failed green energy companies that just happened to be captained by his campaign donors, especially the part about changing the rules so the taxpayer was on the hook, not the investors.
Nice try at revisionist history, Phil, since it was Bush who first guaranteed loans to Solyndra in 2005. 33 projects minus 2 companies that filed for bankruptcy, plus 2 auto companies saved equals 33 out of 35 companies that have been successful under Obama, and some of the money Obama gave Solyndra will be recouped since they are going through bankruptcy. Of course you failed to mention the Walton family (Walmart) ALSO funded Solyndra, aren't they GOP donors, and why aren't you harping on their decisions?
Valhalla, so you think it was Obama who racked up the trillion dollar debt to China and created the huge trade deficit? You can't be that stupid can you?
Part of communism's lasting legacy. Grasses used to hold down the desert sands, but the maniacal Mao viewed English sparrows as vestiges of imperialism, put a bounty on them and wiped them out. Once held in check by the birds, proliferating insects soon wiped out the Gobi's vegetation. Endless sandstorms are the result.
Wow. Seriously? You're blaming the pollution problems on Communism, not the many other plausible explanations?
So, if you are a capitalist, you are proenvironment. ROFLMAO
Does everything have to be political? I found your post fascinating misterbeal.
The conclusions drawn by a simple statement are amazing.
misterbeal, sources please?
For starters, Joe S., you might look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
Or you could consult any reliable history of China under the Geat Helmsman. Or you could go to China and ask around.
Why not just say because they don't believe in Jesus. It's just as stupid as what you just said.
@misterbeal: I sense another historian on this thread... :)
@Joe S.: This actually something I even learned about in school and read in several biographies about the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in China. They would "employ" prisoners to scare off and harm sparrows since they were 1) viewed as a shadow of imperialism (since they were English) and more importantly 2) because they were viewed as stealing the seeds from the fields (which was incorrect but Communist leaders/cadres weren't espescially well-educated -- since education was viewed as Westernized and bad, thus why there were enough intellectuals as prisoners to scare/hurt birds in their reeducation "camps"). No one really added up (until later) that the increase in insects and bad harvests (due to insects eating the plants) was because they killed off the birds.
Sounds like LA on a good day.
Welcome to industrialization China. Enjoy.
Maybe eventually the Chinese people will insist on environmental protections. When they are enacted we will be able to compete again, and get some of the manufacturing (and pollution) back here.
Joe S.-761084----Not to worry China's air is heading this way first. We are first in line.
The Chinese, some of them, are beginning to protest for environmental concerns to be addressed.
I'll never forget the documentary on their poorest of the poor, in a dump for old electronics, "cooking" out the trace metals to sell for scrap - the ground poisoned, their hands with open sores from chemical exposure. And the old electronics (computers, tvs, etc) - at the Chinese dump - were brought in from America, bought from "recyclers".
China has such a huge need for electricity (energy) that they are willing kill themselves to produce it. Obviously they are building hydro, nuclear, solar, wind as fast as they can, but new capacity can't come on line fast enough...as they continue to use more and more energy.
There was a story here a few months ago that they were opening 500 new coal mines to feed all their coal fired power plants. They are still building them like there is no tomorrow.
That's why when everyone jumps on the "oh China's economy is growing at this rate and will soon own the world" is B.S. China's economic growth rate is unsustainable. Their population growth, their destruction of their own habitat, their pollution, their suppression of their people and their exploitation of their own resources from fishing to mining are unsustainable. Their pollution levels are so high that they have actually changed the local weather patterns. They have created deserts in areas that where once furtile farm lands. (remeber the dust bowl, ours was crop rotation and overfarming, but same principle) I personally think that they are eyeing an expansion...Africa maybe or even one of the ..stans? Planning to have a few colonies is a good reason to start building a Navy.
I'd look at Cuba if I were them...
If those guys were able to learn Russian, they could give Mandarin a shot.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving government.
The real shame is that this pollution won't reach the inner circle of repressive dictators in their commie government.
Hopefully this will continue until it becomes so bad and disgusting that it finally kills off the murderous commie government lackeys.
It's just a dust storm from the Gobi Desert. It will soon blow over. These storms have happened ever since the Gobi has been a desert and that is a long long time ago.
Go Army----And the desert is growing!!!
Yes, Go Army, but in addition to the dust from the desert, there is the air pollution from all the factories, coal power stations, cars. What a horrible combination!
Don't worry China, the USofA will soon be living out of tents without cars, heaters that all those nasty things that pollute the air...send us some...we'll be able to call it even, eh? Not owe you anything for your filthy air.
The lefties are the ones that put the USofA out of jobs. We comply (loss of jobs) while other nations laugh at us and become wealthy. Cough, cough. We simply sent them too many manufacturing outfits and need for some of them to come back. LOL
Detter-13, it was Demos and Repubs that put the USofA out of jobs. Lots of mistakes over several decades of time by both parties. And both parties in the pockets of big corporations.
China could care less about it's people or the rest of the world. They just care about the growth of the "empire". Get in the game China, you have the resources to do things right!
During the Olympics and for the Formula One China GP, the Chinese Gov't has all the factories shut down, so the world doesn't see the insane amount of pollution spewing out of all the factories. And, it's still horrible!
Guess this works better than medical death panels to limit government exposure for eldercare.
Soot, (actual pollution) is being found to have much more of an affect than any amount of CO2 (plant food) has.
It is soot from China that is carried by winds to the Arctic. The soot settles on the ground (snow and ice). Since it is dark it absorbs heat and leads to melting.
All the money wasted on "green" energy should instead be used to increase the pollution controls on power plants and car engines in China.
http://www.cato.org/blog/current-wisdom-new-findings-black-carbon-spell-trouble-climate-models?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
If it's made of plastic or says "Made in China" or "Hecho en China", don't buy it. You are now more green than GreenPeace. ©2013
Shhhh...we owe them lots of money. Don't mention the pollution or the human rights violations.
Air pollution stinks. China is experiencing massive air pollution. Therefore, China stinks, as I have always heard.
The US recently attached human rights to a treaty with Russia. China has been one of the top human rights and environmental "sinners" forever. Does anyone remember what conditions congress put on the free trade treaty with China in the 90's? The agreement that gave away our job? The one that opened up their massive expansion of manufacturing? Absolutely nothing!! So while our businesses struggle to afford the requirements of endless regulations, China was given a rubber stamp of approval to do anything they wanted. Shame on our "leaders." By not requiring environmental protections of trading partners our gains in environmental cleanup have been more negated by our presidents pen.
Went to China a few years ago, both the Beijing and into the mainland. It is just as bad deeper in. The main sources of polution are 1) everything is deisel, and 2) they still have over 200,000,000 (!) people so poor they burn peat to heat their houses and cook their food. Peat produces a LOT of polutants.
Shanghai isn't doing much better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYYzqYSNQzU
Oh well.. s**t happens.
NO this cannot be right. In Obama's Inaugural Speech he stated that the Chinese are at the forefront of implementing Green Technologies and WE are lagging them, hmmm.
They are implementing green technologies to sell to us! Thanks to China turning them into a commodity, solar panels are now competitive with coal. So what does idiot Obama do? Slap a tariff on them! What a tool.
When is Al Gore going to Grow a Pair, Burn a Carbon Trail to China,
and Give these Chi-Coms a What For?
We should send them Foreign Aid so they can fix this problem
Hey China - while you're spying on us have a look at our air. You are being swallowed by the giant sand dragon - Don't forget you reap what you sew.
I think you mean sow, not sew.