Chinese lose patience with pollution
After enduring more than a month of choking, soupy smog, millions of people in North East China lost their patience yesterday, turning to the internet to vent their anger at the Chinese government.
In the panic over the smog, Chinese
retailers reported a jump in sales of protective masks, with 30,000
being sold on Sunday alone Photo: EPA
2:40PM GMT 06 Dec 2011
Pollution readings in Beijing, collected by a monitor on the roof of the
United States embassy, have hovered around "hazardous" since the
beginning of November.
But in the past few days the crisis has intensified, grounding hundreds of
flights at Beijing's Capital airport and halting traffic on major motorways.
As 30 mile-long tailbacks formed in some areas, long-distance lorry drivers
were given emergency handouts of instant noodles and water as they waited
for visibility to return.
Public anger appears to have reached a tipping point, with millions expressing
their fear and anger online and even state-run newspapers running critical
editorials.
The China Daily newspaper compared Beijing to London in the 1950s, and warned
that lung cancer rates in the capital had soared by 60 per cent in the past
decade, even though there has been no accompanying increase in the
proportion of the population that smokes.
Lung cancer is now one of the biggest killers on the Chinese
mainland, accounting for 600,000 people last year.
"Increasing air pollution might be largely to blame," said Zhi
Xiuyi, director of the lung cancer treatment unit at Capital Medical
university, to the newspaper.
In the panic over the smog, Chinese retailers reported a jump in sales of protective masks, with 30,000 being sold on Sunday alone.
As commuters in Beijing turned on their fog lights and lost sight of the tops of their buildings, the city's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau stuck to its line that air pollution was merely "moderate" only to be greeted with scorn.
"The city is claiming the smog has not reached 'medium pollution'. It is like being stabbed in the chest, without it piercing the heart, and claiming it as a 'minor' injury," said one commenter on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
By contrast, the monitor of the roof of the US embassy, which broadcasts its readings automatically on the internet, went off the chart on Sunday, registering a measurement of "beyond index".
"The air has got worse and worse for a month, and this so-called 'fog' has lasted for days. Many people do not dare step outside. Masks have sold out. Our health is in danger. Many people are asking themselves whether they should stay in Beijing or leave," said another.
Ma Jun, the head of one of China's few environmental NGOs, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the pollution across the North East was a combination of unfortunate weather and a haze of suspended particles from coal fires and industrial smoke stacks.
"Because particle pollution has reached an alarming level, any unfavourable weather, such as the current lull in wind, can cause quite serious consequences," he said.
"The government has made some efforts, for example switching to gas instead of coal in city centres. But there has been a huge rise in the number of cars, and large industrial parks now surround Beijing, which can still blow pollution over the city."
Mr Ma said the government should release transparent and accurate pollution readings so that the public could take its own precautions.
In the longer term, he urged a greater public transport programme and emissions controls on industry.
"People are more environmentally aware, and they are angry at the lack of transparency from the government," he said.
In the past two years, Beijing officials have announced good or excellent air quality nearly 80 per cent of the time. But the US embassy monitor, a source of some diplomatic tension, has flatly contradicted the official line. From January 2010 to last October, Beijing has only had 13 days a year of "good" air, and 297 days a year of unhealthy to hazardous air.
To achieve the official readings, Beijing has rearranged its monitoring stations twice since 2006, and takes an average across several stations, including one in the countryside that is some 20 miles outside the city centre. Beijing officials have now bowed to public pressure and said they will begin to provide readings of fine particulate pollution, the most damaging to human health, but only in 2016.
In the panic over the smog, Chinese retailers reported a jump in sales of protective masks, with 30,000 being sold on Sunday alone.
As commuters in Beijing turned on their fog lights and lost sight of the tops of their buildings, the city's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau stuck to its line that air pollution was merely "moderate" only to be greeted with scorn.
"The city is claiming the smog has not reached 'medium pollution'. It is like being stabbed in the chest, without it piercing the heart, and claiming it as a 'minor' injury," said one commenter on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
By contrast, the monitor of the roof of the US embassy, which broadcasts its readings automatically on the internet, went off the chart on Sunday, registering a measurement of "beyond index".
"The air has got worse and worse for a month, and this so-called 'fog' has lasted for days. Many people do not dare step outside. Masks have sold out. Our health is in danger. Many people are asking themselves whether they should stay in Beijing or leave," said another.
Ma Jun, the head of one of China's few environmental NGOs, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the pollution across the North East was a combination of unfortunate weather and a haze of suspended particles from coal fires and industrial smoke stacks.
"Because particle pollution has reached an alarming level, any unfavourable weather, such as the current lull in wind, can cause quite serious consequences," he said.
"The government has made some efforts, for example switching to gas instead of coal in city centres. But there has been a huge rise in the number of cars, and large industrial parks now surround Beijing, which can still blow pollution over the city."
Mr Ma said the government should release transparent and accurate pollution readings so that the public could take its own precautions.
In the longer term, he urged a greater public transport programme and emissions controls on industry.
"People are more environmentally aware, and they are angry at the lack of transparency from the government," he said.
In the past two years, Beijing officials have announced good or excellent air quality nearly 80 per cent of the time. But the US embassy monitor, a source of some diplomatic tension, has flatly contradicted the official line. From January 2010 to last October, Beijing has only had 13 days a year of "good" air, and 297 days a year of unhealthy to hazardous air.
To achieve the official readings, Beijing has rearranged its monitoring stations twice since 2006, and takes an average across several stations, including one in the countryside that is some 20 miles outside the city centre. Beijing officials have now bowed to public pressure and said they will begin to provide readings of fine particulate pollution, the most damaging to human health, but only in 2016.