Beijing's Smog Approaching The Surreal - Visibility 10 Meters On 11/25

[hatrack]

Sports News, BEIJING - "Thick smog blanketed Beijing on Thursday, triggering flight delays and traffic snarls and spotlighting the city's uphill battle to curb pollution before it hosts the 2008 Olympic Games.

The smog limited visibility to 10 metres in some places, causing the closure of five highways for parts of the day on Wednesday and the delay of hundreds of flights. Flight boards at Beijing's Capital Airport showed delays and cancellations continuing on Thursday. "The humidity and cold air leads to this fog, but it is also partly from the pollution problem," said Gan Ning, a climate change expert at the China office of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

China is the world's largest source of soot and sulphur dioxide emissions from coal, which fuels three-quarters of the country's power plants.

EDIT

Beijing targeted 227 clear sky days for 2004, but was still 18 days short of the goal at the start of December, the official Xinhua news agency said. The city's air quality on Wednesday was rated just below the hazardous level, figures on Xinhua from the China Environmental Monitoring Centre showed."

EDIT

http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=72498

[tekriter]

1. And people bitch about the EPA...

they have no idea how bad the air would be here if we hadn't done something in the '70's.

[phantom power]

3. It looks like we're going to re-learn, the hard way.

Just like we're all going to get an object lesson in what it's like to live in a country without economic regulations, or employee safety regs, or social security, or health care...

[RedEarth]

2. Good grief....10 meters

Can't see how they can do much by 2008....sounds like they have a major problem that's going to take awhile to fix.....can't imagine living in that kind of environment.

[Xithras]

5. No, the advantage of a totalitarian government...

If they really need to, the government can declare a national holiday during the games to close down the factories, and couple it with a severe driving restrictions in and around the city. That would provide an immediately effective, albeit temporary, solution.

The Chinese in Beijing, who are used to utilizing public transportation or good old "people power" anyway, probably wouldn't complain to heavily if the government took their new toys away for a week or two.

[TO Kid]

6. It ain't the cars

The biggest problem is that most of China's energy comes from coal which, although it can deliver a better energy/pollutant ratio than wood (still the no. 1 fuel source in the world) is still a lot dirtier than most other energy sources. Coupled with the fact that most Chinese coal furnaces don't use the anti-pollution technology that is standard here and you've got a huge problem. Parking every car in China will have absolutely no effect on the environment if the factories and power plants keep operating.

[TO Kid]

4. Sounds like London in the 1950s

London had some famous "killer fogs", IIRC there was one in Pennsylvania back then as well. Problem was solved when factories switched from coal to gas, coal furnaces were improved and many powerplants and factories were relocated to reduce the concentration.

Japan also had some serious pollution problems as well, and the reason is the same as it had been for Europe, North America and now China. When a country is poor and barely able to produce the necessities, clean air & water are considered a "luxury". Regardless of the amount of regulation the bottom line is that societies start cleaning up the messes when they can afford to.

[fedsron2us]

8. The London smog of 1952 was a big killer

The official statistics attributed an estimated 4075 deaths to the polluted air. However, the real level of fatalities may have been a lot higher.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2545747.stm

http://www.whensmokeranlikewater.com/publications/scientific/London_Fog.htm

Coal burning and unusual weather conditions caused the catastrophe.

If Beijiing is experiencing something similar then a lot of people are going to die.

[NNadir]

7. Let's recognize it for what it is, another coal disaster. n/t

[hatrack]

9. If you're looking for a satellite graphic, check this out:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996690

Makes my lungs hurt just looking at it.

[eleonora]

11. wow..impressive

Looks like a grey puff of smoke. Disgusting!

[eleonora]

10. I wonder how asmatic people can survive.

I'd be scared of catching lung cancer too...ugh...