Authorities close schools and limit driving as smog crisis cripples Beijing

The city authorities’ decision to issue a red alert has widely been interpreted as a response to pressure from central government, after the decision to leave the alert at amber after last week’s heavy pollution attracted criticism from charities and local residents.

This was bound to happen since the authorities seemed very lax about tackling the problem, while the city continued to expand every day.

The city’s roads and sidewalks were much quieter than usual Tuesday, and small-business owners like Jia Xiaojiang, who makes egg pancakes, complained of fewer customers. “It shows they really want to initiate this alert system and deal with air pollution”.

That city has no pollution alert system but has been suffering from weeks of choking smog, with PM 2.5 levels reaching 377 on Tuesday according to United States embassy measurements.

But according to BBC, only a week ago it was much worse than this, as that same index read figures around 40 times greater than WHO’s threshold. The smog was predicted to last three more days.

Well, the simple answer is that it had to start from somewhere.

A study led by atmospheric chemist Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute and published this year in “Nature” magazine estimated that 1.4 million people each year die prematurely because of pollution in China.

Besides, polluting factories and construction sites in Beijing are being shut down and the administration has urged kindergartens to remain closed while not issuing a formal order to them.

In the meantime, the people of Beijing and visitors alike are struggling to breathe.

Beijing’s pollution had been improving in the first 10 months of this year compared to 2014.

Beijing’s first-ever “red alert” signaling dangerously unhealthy levels of smog on Tuesday and Wednesday is putting pressure on the Chinese delegation at the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris, a meeting also known as COP21.

Li Huiwen told the wire service that she felt “uncomfortable” and didn’t “have any energy”, and emphasized that it was important “to do whatever you can to protect yourself” from the pollution.

Chen said the warning levels should be adjusted according to the real-time pollution conditions.

China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, aims to have its emissions peak by 2030.

Kerry said the red alert in Beijing is an example of what the government is facing in terms of public pressure to act. Last week, the concentration of fine particulates that pose the greatest risk to human health rose to 666, more than 25 times World Health Organization-recommended levels.