China:  under  strong  smog  and  orange  warning  of  air  pollution  

Published on Monday December 30, 2015 by Yanan Jing on WordPress

China issued its highest smog warning so far this year. In north China, the severe

polluted area has reached to 32 times the urban area of Beijing city, which is

almost the size of metropolitan France!

While the United Nations climate change conference, widely known as COP21,

opened its high-level climate talks Monday in Paris, Beijing was suffering from the

most severe smog pollution in this year.

Orange Warning

On Monday In Beijing, pollution index of some parts of the city reached 20 times

the level considered safe by the World Health Organization, which is no more than

25µg/m3 in every 24 hours.

In northern China, the pollution surface reached 530 000 km2, which equals 32

times the size of Beijing city. Only Sunday night, the PM2.5 concentration leaped

7 times and the highest score was over 1000µg/ m3. In central city, the PM2.5

level maintained around 500 - 600 µg/ m3 on Monday afternoon, according to

Xinhua News.

On the report of the Air Quality Index in China, almost all districts of Beijing are

marked with an orange warning, which means the severe pollution will continue in

the fallowing 3 days.

In Beijing, schools canceled all outdoor activities. The government relocated

students from the most polluted areas. Lots of factories in suburban Beijing were

urged to close temporarily.

23 other cities suffer from heavy air pollution

However, besides Beijing, Tianjin and other 22 cities in 4 northern provinces also

issued orange warning, where smog was covering most parts of the cities. The

highest score was 976µg/ m3 in this area.

The highway between Beijing and Shandong was partially closed, because of the

low visibility. In some parts, the visible limit was restricted to only a few meters.

People breathe hardly under strong smog

In Beijing, the pungent smell in the air is so strong that people have to wear

masks to protect themselves. But some health specialists explained that masks

couldn’t really stop tiny dust, which exposed people in unprotected situation.

Meanwhile, in many cities outdoor construction projects have been stopped to

protect workers. Citizens were asked to stay indoors as much as possible.

Unqualified coal burning and slow wind rate aggrieve air pollution

As winter is coming, most parts of China use coal and carbon fuel for heating.

With difficulties in green energy popularization, how China could reduce pollution

is becoming extremely critical.

In November, unusual cold current and snowfall stroke China. The Ministry of

Environmental Protection of China published results of coal using situation in

Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province. Coal quality figured as the most important

element contributing to air pollution: carbon content of fuel in Beijing, Tianjin and

Hebei was respectively 22.2%, 26.7% and 37.5% higher than qualified coal.

Some experts said wind rate was another reason of severe air pollution. When the

wind blows slowly, it’s hard to disperse pollutants.

In an interview with Xinhua News, Bihui Zhang who works for the meteorological

center in Beijing explained how wind direction can affect air pollution: “ In general,

wind from the north disperses more easily pollutants. Wind from the south,

however, is too weak to blow away smog in winter. The lower the wind rate is, the

faster pollutants gather. And humid air makes it even worse.”

According to the National Meteorological Center of China, a strong cold current

was moving from Xinjiang area to the east parts of China, and would probably

bring a gale and heavy rain. “The smog weather will possibly disappear in 3 days”,

said Bihui Zhang.

In response to the calling of COP21, Chinese government has issued many

projects to replace coal fuel with more clean energy. The discussion, whether the

emission of greenhouse gas in China could reach its peak in 2030 or not, has

already become a main concern worldwide.