China pollution: Beijing issues first red smog alert

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: BBC

Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first "red alert" over smog levels.

The red alert is the highest possible, and has not been used in the city before, the state-run Xinhua news agency says.

Authorities expect more than three consecutive days of severe smog.

Cars with odd and even number plates will be banned from driving on alternate days.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-35026363

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[Feeling the Bern]

1. Yet, anti-pollution activists for NGOs they arrest wily-nily because their polluters bribe the

police and the CCP.

http://www.echinacities.com/news/Corruption-Environmentalists-Investigating-Industrial-Park-Arrested-for-Prostitution

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, MowCowWhoHow III.

[Dustlawyer]

3. How can the government officials do this? This is equivalent to gassing the Jews!

Strong statement I know, but they know how many this pollution is killing and it is a LOT!

[valerief]

7. The most important thing in the world is for rich people to get richer. All else is secondary.

[Divernan]

4. Beijing's airpocalypse-diplomats' kids in filtered air bubbles

This link is to an article from December 16, 2014. The situation has worsened since then.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/16/beijing-airpocalypse-city-almost-uninhabitable-pollution-china

The British School is the latest of Beijing’s international colleges to go to the drastic lengths of building an artificial bubble in which to simulate a normal environment beneath the cloak of smog. Earlier this year, the nearby International School of Beijing lavished £3m on a pair of domes covering an area of six tennis courts, with hospital-grade air-filtration systems, following the lead of the Beijing satellite of exclusive British private school Dulwich College, which opened its own clean-air dome last year.

The British School has recently undergone a complete filtration overhaul, as if preparing for atmospheric armageddon, with new air curtains installed above the doors and almost 200 ceiling-mounted air purifiers put in to complement the floor-standing kind in each classroom. Windows must remain closed, and pupils must adhere to the strict air safety code. Reception classes stay indoors when the air quality index (AQI) hits 180 – measured on an official scale of 500 by various sensors across the city. For primary kids the limit is 200, while the eldest students are allowed to brave the elements up to 250. Anything above 300 and school trips are called off. The World Health Organisation, meanwhile, recommends a safe exposure level of 25.

“We were finding our sports fixtures were being cancelled so often, and kids were getting cabin fever from being kept in doors so much of the time,” says Travis Washko. “But now we have the dome, it’s perfect weather all year round.”

This year’s Beijing marathon, held on a day that exceeded 400 on the scale, saw many drop out when their face-mask filters turned a shade of grey after just a few kilometres. Some said it felt like running through bonfire smoke. With such hazardous conditions increasingly common, it’s not surprising that foreign companies are now expected to pay a “hardship bonus” of up to 20 or 30% to those willing to work in the Chinese capital.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I don't think the hardship bonus

is exclusive to Beijing - I think it's in many large Chinese cities like Shanghai, Tianjin, etc. And, it's not cheap to live in these big cities, either, so you're talking 20-30% on top of a salary that is already into 6 figures.

[randome]

10. This may be our future. A poisoned planet with domed enclosures.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[Gregorian]

6. Get back on your bikes you dingleberries.

[avaistheone1]

8. Some of this air pollution makes its way to the U.S. as well.

[Javaman]

9. I'm so glad the climate change conference will change this!

right? >cough cough< hello? anyone out there? >cough cough, hack<

playing a fiddle while rome burns.

[Kablooie]

11. I lived in Pasadena in the 1950's and it was like this every day.

There was a mountain range 4 miles away that we could only see very occasionally.
Most days all you could see was a grey, smoggy sky.
Nowadays you can see the mountains every day and most days the air is not noticeably fogged.

California decreased the air pollution dramatically over the last few decades.
I hope China follows suit soon.

[Stuart G]

12. Great Smog in London in 1952 killed 4000 people. Started Dec 4, 1952.. Hit link for mor info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog