Beijing Air Pollution Reaches Extremely Hazardous Levels

Air quality in the city of 16 million is usually bad in winter, when coal fires are lit by the poor to ward off the cold. The heavy smog erased the capital’s skylines with a monotonous grey & left buildings only a block or two away hardly discernable.

Beijing’s stifling air pollution reached its most hazardous level of the year over the weekend, underscoring the urgency behind China’s environmental struggle as world leaders meet in Paris to discuss climate change.

Production at industrial plants has been curtailed, highways have been shut down, and the movement of materials at construction sites has come to a halt in Beijing, amid the heavy smog which has been engulfing the capital for recent days. Construction work throughout the city was also halted.

Motorists wait at a junction as vehicles pass beneath a traffic sign reading “Visibility low, slowdown the speed” on a heavily polluted day in Beijing, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015.

China’s government says it is “waging war” on pollution, but the familiar return of smog-shrouded skies has created some dark humour among internet users on the mainland.

“The air pollution is all-encompassing, and it requires both the government and individuals to shoulder the responsibility to clean up the air”, said Liu Juntang, a businessman whose company develops environmental technology.

As for students, the education commission has called a halt to all outdoor activities for schools, kindergartens and junior educational institutions since Sunday, according to a statement on the commission’s website.

Tests found coal burning to be to blame for the bulk of the latest pollution surge, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Zhang Dawei, head of the city’s environmental monitoring center.

Prolonged exposure to air that contains more than 300 micrograms per cubic metre, known as PM2.5, is generally regarded as hazardous. Authorities said they didn’t issue the highest red alert because they were expecting the air quality to improve by Wednesday. The ministry said it had sent teams to check on illegal emissions by factories in several northern Chinese cities.

In Beijing, residents and visitors face the issue first-hand, struggling through the city’s dense air wearing face masks to protect themselves from the pollution.

Authorities in Beijing ordered the closure of 2,100 highly polluting businesses, state media said, and advised citizens to stay indoors. The country is also estimated to have released between up to 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2013 alone, which is nearly twice as much as the United States and around two and a half times the level emitted by the European Union.