William Stoeffhaas                                                                                                 4/11/13

E-Sci                                                                                                   Current Events

What Beijing's battle with air pollution tells us about China

"What Beijing's Battle with Air Pollution Tells Us about China." Weblog post. The Economic Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

What Beijing's battle with air pollution tells us about China

Chinese millionaire and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao has put his million-dollar idea in a can. It is pure, unadulterated — hold your breath — fresh air. Chen could make another million on the green and orange cans of freshness, but he gave them away on a busy Beijing sidewalk. He calls the can "Chen Guangbiao: Nice Guy".

Avoiding the raillery expected at a stunt like this, Beijingers picked up the cans faster than Chen could supply, demonstrating the people's desperation for a whiff of smog-free air. In January, China recorded some of the highest pollution figures since the monitoring of air quality began a few years ago. The online buzz on Chinese social media was about a dreadful number — the reading on pollution-monitoring devices.

The US embassy in Beijing was the first to install a device in 2008. For most people, it is the gold standard when it comes to monitoring Beijing's air. Figures above 150 are considered "unhealthy" and anything above 300 is "hazardous" and comes with the warning, "health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects". The number on January 12 was 755.

Air Your Grievance

Visibility fell to less than 50 feet and the city was covered in a thick, pungent layer of smog, driving Beijingers to shop for surgical mask-like air filters and household air-purifying systems, costing anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000. People flocked to hospitals with young children and the elderly complaining of breathing difficulties and physical uneasiness. In a country where a one-child policy is in place and where most parents spare no expense in raising that child, there was despondency.

"We are the ones who suffer," said a tobacconist, Zhang, in his shop near Beijing's west railway station. "The rich send their children to schools abroad; ours have to wade through this muck everyday." "It smelt like diesel fumes and this was inside my centrally air-conditioned room in a five-star hotel. I had absolutely no idea what to do," said a chief purser on a South Asian airline, during a mandatory layover in the city between flights.

The Chinese capital's air quality headlined public debates when Beijing's American embassy placed a pollution-monitoring device on its roof, funnelling its results on to social media sites like Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Weibo. The Chinese government has its own results, but the American embassy's readings have stricter standards called PM 2.5, measuring particles less than 2.5 microns wide, while the Chinese publish only larger PM 10 measurements.

PM 2.5 is said to measure the more dangerous particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and are associated with emissions from vehicles and industry. The World Health Organisation estimated in 2007 that more than 650,000 people died each year in China from illnesses caused by air pollution. Last year, the Chinese government, after resisting the publication of PM 2.5 figures for months, gave in to public opinion and began issuing numbers for smaller particulate matter in the air of not just the capital but of 70-odd cities.

Perfect Smog

It is, however, not every day that Beijing is enveloped in noxious fumes dubbed "airpocalypse". The government says there were more than 280 "blue sky" days in 2011; residents, of course, raise their eyebrows at that number. The phenomenon is particularly frequent during the city's harsh winters and when demand for electricity soars. Unlike Delhi, Beijing is a city with electricity all day, all year round. Until a decade ago, most of this was supplied from coal-fired plants (these have now been shut), which coupled with rapid urbanisation (more than half of China's population now lives in cities) and a burgeoning middle-class (Beijing sees a quarter million new cars every year despite tight restrictions on the issuance of new number plates), provided the right brew for a sulphur-ridden sky. Together with smoky factories (most of which have been moved to neighbouring but not too far away Hebei province) and Beijing's unique geography, surrounded by mountains on three sides, this created the Perfect Smog.

            This article I about sir pollution in Beijing, China. In the article it was said that air pollution is so bad that people would buy cans of fresh air, cans filled with just air; the inventor made 100,000’s of dollars. In 2008 the US embassy installed air pollution readers to get an understanding of just how bad their pollution was. Above 150 is unhealthy and above 300 is hazardous, Beijing’s reading was 755, clearly there is a problem. The conditions were so bad that it even got visibility down to 50ft, people had to buy air purifiers for their homes, and worst of all a vast number of children and elderly were coming in to hospitals sue to pollutant related breathing problems. After all of this information came about China decided to review how they dealt with measuring pollution particles and now has reduced the particle seize to get better readings. Sadly Beijing’s geography is perfect for making and trapping smog, just another thing adding to the polluted city.

           

            From the article it is clear that air pollution is a very important topic affecting everyone and the problem can only get worse with the quick growth and dependence on technology. In the article it talks about how the air pollution is not only affecting peoples health but also affecting their spending. People have to buy air fresheners because of the smell, cans of air just to breath, and air purifiers for their homes just to keep the basic standards of living. But as I said before air pollution has a big effect on people’s health, and on the environment. If this is where air pollution is now just imagine where it will be with the growth on technological dependence. Hopefully this crisis will get scientists to help and create technology that is not harmful to the environment, because with out that I don’t know what will happen.

            Over all this article was very interesting and informative. I liked the beginning about the cans of fresh air, because in America that just sounds silly and stupid where in Beijing it’s a multi million-dollar idea. I don’t see too much area for improvement, but if they did change it I think that they should add more statistics about the effect on health, and I think that the article should have talked about the effect of air pollution on the environement.