Thread: Beijing Smog Shuts Down City - Red Alert

Beijing issues first pollution red alert as smog engulfs capital Tom Phillips in Beijing 8 Dec 2015

Pollution levels were already nearly 15 times higher than the World Health Organisation deems safe.

On Tuesday morning, as China’s smog-choked capital declared its first ever air pollution red alert, the school, normally buzzing with over-energetic 10-year-olds, was almost silent. A pungent mist hung over the outdoor basketball courts and running track.

And inside the four-floor main building, hundreds of small wooden desks and chairs were empty.

“Usually it won’t be this quiet,” said Wang Ye, a 24-year-old English teacher, as she toured its ghostly corridors and classrooms where forgotten rucksacks and winter coats were among the few reminders of its normal routine.

Across Beijing, thousands of other schools and nurseries were in a similar state of almost total shutdown after the city’s authorities announced a three-day state of emergency because of the pollution.

Building sites and factories were forced to close; millions of cars were ordered off the roads; and teams of environmental inspectors fanned out across the surrounding region to ensure that coal-fired power stations and steel mills were not secretly churning out even more filth into the already putrid atmosphere.

Environment authorities must closely follow the situation, improve monitoring and forecasting, and guide local governments’ emergency response plans,” China’s environment minister, Chen Jining, said, according to Xinhua, the official news agency.

At 7am, when the red alert – the first in Chinese history – officially came into force, a thick gloom hung over Beijing.

Wearing an anti-smog facemask, Wang set off from home just before sunrise and turned up for work alongside about 60 fellow teachers.

But following government advice, just 20 of the school’s 250 children – those whose working parents had nowhere else to send them – had showed up for class.

“Learning is quite important to them but health is more important. Under the circumstances I think they should stay at home,” said Wang.

“It’s quite difficult because we must develop and developing can bring some problems,” the teacher said of the smog. Asked about its physical effects, she croaked: “You can hear my throat.”

Those who missed the government’s high-profile announcement of the pollution alert on Monday evening needed only to pick up Tuesday morning’s papers for the gory details.

“The first ever red alert for heavy air pollution,” read the Beijing Times’ front-page headline, pointing readers to an inside spread detailing the city’s latest “airpocalpyse”.

Beneath was an image designed to highlight the Communist party’s determination to crack down on polluters: an environmental inspector using a camera to photograph an oil refinery not far from the capital.

Liao Yuxi, a news stand owner, said the alert had proved a double dose of bad news for his family. Not only had he been unable to send his 10-year-old son to school but newspaper sales were also down as many of Beijing’s 23 million residents avoided venturing out into the foul-tasting murk.

“Business isn’t good,” the 44-year-old said, as his child sat in the corner filling in a colouring book. “I read the papers every day. The government always says it is taking measures. But I haven’t seen any details of them.”


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/08/beijing-smog-city-shuts-down-amid-red-alert