Beijing’s first ever smog red alert forces schools and businesses to close

Half the city’s private vehicles will not be allowed on roads, with only those with odd or even number registration plates allowed to ply on each day. 30 percent of government vehicles have also been garaged.

Some polluting enterprises, including a stone processing factory and several clothing workshops, continued to operate on Tuesday after a red alert, the highest level, was issued in the morning.

Under the alert, schools were advised to voluntarily close unless they had good air filtration systems.

Forecasters have predicted more than three consecutive days of severe smog.

Pressure from the central government and from the public resulted “in the Beijing city government releasing the red alert this time”, Greenpeace environmental campaigner Dong Liangsai said in an interview.

Those who did struggle to the office posted pictures on social media of themselves wearing industrial-strength face masks.

But in talks with Chinese officials, she has also been suggesting that the Clean Air Act and the Clean Power Plan that has sprung from it offer China a solution to tackle the source of the heavy smog that is paralyzing Beijing and causing civil unrest.

“You have to do whatever you can to protect yourself”, Beijing resident Li Huiwen said while stopping at a market.

“Today wasn’t as serious as the previous time”, said one commenter.

An “orange alert”, officially the second-highest alert level of the city’s four-step system, had been called last week for the first time this year.

Still, the red alert suggests Chinese officials are taking pollution seriously after many years of denying any problems, environmentalists said.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the air quality index stood at 250 Tuesday morning, classed as “very unhealthy” and 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended levels.

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

A woman uses her hand to cover her face from pollutants as people walk along a street on a polluted day in Beijing, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015.

“Before, they were more or less somewhat reluctant to acknowledge the problem”.

Any measure addressing only Beijing “can only have limited results”, he said.

One thing is for certain, both Delhi and Beijing need to take drastic measures to curb pollution.