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Posted on 04/06/2005 8:03:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING (AFP) - People in Beijing were warned to stay indoors as the Chinese capital was shrouded in yellow smog with pollution reaching dangerous levels.
"Under these polluted conditions, we propose that the majority of citizens reduce their time outdoors and avoid breathing this seriously polluted air," the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said in a warning posted on its website.
Beijing's air quality has been at the lowest level for the past two days with the air "seriously polluted," the bureau said.
Experts said the capital was experiencing a heat inversion, where warmer air in the atmosphere was keeping the colder ground air in place, making it difficult for the pollution to disperse, the bureau said.
Meanwhile warmer spring temperatures in the city also meant that work at construction sites has increased, further kicking up dust that is mixing with the ever-increasing auto pollution.
"Under this situation, the thickness of every kind of air pollution has clearly increased, especially breathable suspended particles, which have risen rather quickly," the bureau said.
Suspended particle levels were hovering around the dangerous level of 400 and 500 micrograms per cubic meter, it said.
According to satellite photos, the inversion was lingering over northern China's Hebei and Shanxi provinces and extending southward to the Yangtze river, the paper said.
During the past decade of China's economic boom, the nation has also produced some of the worlds most polluted cities, with Beijing's air quality regularly ranking among the worst in the country and world.
Doesn't suprise me a bit. The only time I ever saw Hong Kong when flying in was when a typhoon had blown all the pollution out to sea. It's worse in the mainland. 6 months after a building is built, it'll have black pollution streaks down it.
The rivers are BLACK. Not brown, not yellow, BLACK. It's nasty. Dirty country.
"Fortunately, they can do to environmentalists and labor union types in China (like in the photos of the Tibetans they executed) things we couldn't even consider here...."
That's why they live in a sewer.
Seems to me they could do some of the same things they've done when critical of American environmental policies and practices -- organize protests and demonstrations in front of the Chinese embassies and consulates, demand that China sign on to Kyoto, call for boycotts of Chinese goods, pressure Congress to impose restrictions on trade, step into the MSM spotlight.
Maybe I'm just naive, but I can't see what would stop them -- unless they're just reluctant to put pressure on a communist country.
Excellent suggestions. You are right. If environmentalists are truly thinking globally, they would stage huge protests and demand our government take action. But if our government doesn't take action to protect children in China against slave labor (we get cheaper trinkets), what makes you think they would impose sanctions for the environment? And would conservatives attack them for demanding such action? I think they would.
Back in the 18th century, Britain took no steps to protect the people of India from similar and worse abuses. As far as I know, only one man in England even cared. Eventually, that was enough.
A: Target practice!
Don't forget Centralia, PA.
That's why they live in a sewer.
Well, they made their bed, now they have to lay in it...
I'm originally from Hazleton so I 've been to Centralia several times to gawk, we also had our own mine fire off of Route 924 near Cranberry and their was one near Ashley and Nanticoke which was a favorite politico touring site.
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