China Digital Times

Stories tagged with: air pollution (161)

• China’s Journey to the Dark Ages

  

  An new report from the United Nations Environment Programme gives an alarming picture of the effects of air pollution in China and South Asia. In China alone, air pollution has caused $82 billion in economic losses, the report says. From the Globe and Mail:

  The study says the toxic clouds - more than three kilometres thick - are contributing to a huge range of dangerous effects: extreme weather; damage to crops; melting of glaciers; the dimming of big cities; shifts in rainfall; massive economic losses; higher food prices; and a growing number of human deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

  Up to 25 per cent of the sunlight has disappeared in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, India’s New Delhi and Karachi, Pakistan, the study concluded. In India, the dimming of cities has more than doubled since 1980, it said.

  [...] Achim Steiner, the UNEP executive director, said he expects the phenomenon of toxic brown clouds to be “firmly on the international community’s radar” as a result of the latest study, which was released yesterday. The clouds need “urgent and detailed research,” he said.

  Read the full UNEP report here.

  » Read more
  • November 14, 2008 11:27 AM

• Is Beijing Fudging Its Pollution Numbers?

  

  On the New Republic’s blog, Alex Pasternack looks at a new report that says the Chinese government may have falsified statistics in reporting decreasing air pollution:

  Even for those of us with an unlikely and perhaps unhealthy optimism about China’s environmental situation, it wasn’t hard to be suspicious of Beijing’s pollution progress in recent years. In 2007, the Beijing government managed to meet its target of 246 “Blue Sky” days largely thanks to a disproportionate number of days when the API reading was exactly 100. More than a few people wondered if pollution readings weren’t being shaved to meet the official goal. One of those people was Andrews, a young researcher working for a green NGO in China. After digging into official data available on public web sites (like this one and this one), Andrews found that Beijing had been moving its air sampling stations to areas with less traffic and industry to create the appearance of less pollution. His research, first published last year in the Wall Street Journal, showed that if the same monitoring station locations used in Beijing from 1998 to 2005 continued to be used in 2006, 38 of that year’s ‘Blue Sky’ days would have exceeded the “Blue Sky” standard. It’s as if New York City were measuring its pollution by putting monitoring stations in Stony Brook.

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  • November 12, 2008 2:03 PM

• Shanghai Follows Beijing in Putting Brakes on Traffic

  

  Shanghai will implement a watered-down version of Beijing’s car ban policy in order to relieve road congestion and to reduce air pollution. From Reuters:

  Starting next month, vehicles belonging to the government or state-owned enterprises will be banned from the roads on one out of five weekdays in a system based on license plate numbers.

  Different from Beijing’s curbs, Shanghai’s will not apply to private cars even though “Shanghai’s private vehicles are encouraged to follow the restrictions,” Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying.

  Beijing has imposed another 6-month car ban starting on October 11th (see CDT article) after its first implementation during the China’s Olympics 2008. However, the post-Olympics environmental report conducted by Greenpeace points out that Beijing should also tackle the rapidly growing car ownership rate.

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  • October 17, 2008 1:16 AM

• After Popular Blue Skies During Olympics, Beijing Brings Back Pollution Controls

  

  From Christian Science Monitor:

  Wednesday was a “blue sky day” in the Chinese capital.

  But whether that has anything at all to do with the new traffic restrictions that the Beijing government imposed this week seems highly doubtful. There may be less smoke, but there are just as many mirrors when it comes to presenting pollution statistics in China.

  A “blue sky day” in official parlance means a day when the Air Pollution Index is below 100, indicating that the air quality is “excellent” or “good.” It doesn’t necessarily mean you can see the sky, or even the clouds; nor do Chinese definitions of “excellent” and “good” match international ones, but you can’t be picky when you live in Beijing.

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  • October 15, 2008 7:49 PM

• China Also Suffers From Indoor Air Pollution

  

  From Los Angeles Times:

  China is already home to 16 of the planet’s 20 most heavily polluted cities — a noxious consequence of its double-digit economic growth. Now researchers have worse news for the nation’s beleaguered lower classes: The air inside their homes is up to 10 times worse than the prevailing gloom outside.

  Seven of 10 homes still burn coal and wood for heat, and half of Chinese men smoke — a toxic combination of indoor pollution that raises dire questions about the fate of this industrial giant’s long-term public health.

  Over the next quarter-century, 83 million Chinese — a number equaling nearly a third of the total U.S. population — will die of lung cancer and respiratory ailments unless cigarette smoking and indoor fuel-burning are reduced, a new study by Harvard’s School of Public Health warns.

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  • October 13, 2008 2:18 AM

• MIT Report Debunks China Energy Myth

  

  From MIT News:

  A detailed analysis of powerplants in China by MIT researchers debunks the widespread notion that outmoded energy technology or the utter absence of government regulation is to blame for that country’s notorious air-pollution problems. The real issue, the study found, involves complicated interactions between new market forces, new commercial pressures and new types of governmental regulation.

  China’s power sector has been expanding at a rate roughly equivalent to three to four new coal-fired, 500 megawatt plants coming on line every week, said Edward S. Steinfeld, associate professor of political science at MIT.

  After detailed survey and field research involving dozens of managers at 85 power plants across 14 Chinese provinces, Steinfeld and his co-authors, Richard Lester (professor, nuclear science and engineering and director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center) and Edward Cunningham (doctoral candidate, political science) found that in fact most of the new plants have been built to very high technical standards, using some of the most modern technologies available. The problem has to do with the way that energy infrastructure is being operated and the types of coals being burned.

  You can download the full report here.

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  • October 8, 2008 4:42 PM

• Beijing Imposes Car Ban to Ease Pollution

  

  The car ban imposed for the Olympics has expired, but according to China Daily, Beijing will impose a new 6-month ban to try to ease air pollution beginning on October 11.

  Cars whose number plates end with 1 or 6 will be taken off roads on Monday, while those ending with 2 or 7 will be banned on Tuesday, 3 or 8 on Wednesday, 4 or 9 on Thursday and 5 or 0 on Friday. The ban does not apply on weekends.

  [...]In compensation, the restricted vehicles will be exempt from one month of vehicle tax and road maintenance fee a year. Drivers who are caught to have breached the new rule will not enjoy the exemption, according to Wang [Zhaorong, an official with the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications].

  While most people applaud the ban on government and corporate vehicles, the ban on private cars, however, has sparked an outcry from car owners, many of whom complain it is “unfair”.

  Show on map

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  • September 28, 2008 5:02 PM

• China Likely to Broaden Anti-Pollution Monitoring

  

  From Reuters:

  China is likely to introduce new pollution monitoring measures in 2009 and learn from action taken during the Olympics to try and ensure Beijing does not sink back into smog, officials said on Sunday.

  Fan Yuansheng, director general of the department of pollution control at the Environmental Protection Ministry, said China would also probably carry on keeping some government vehicles off Beijing’s roads after the Games. . . .

  China currently monitors sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 micrometers or less, known as PM 10, but the measures do not cover finer particles called PM 2.5.

  “Personally I think we will start formal monitoring (of ozone and PM 2.5) from next year,” said Fan.

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  • August 3, 2008 1:46 PM

• Beijing Air

  

  Asia Society has launched an interactive website looking at Beijing’s air pollution called Beijing Air. The site includes a feature called “Room With a View” which examines the daily changes in air quality. It also features a video reportand a statistical look at the Air Pollution Index published by SEPA.

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  • July 31, 2008 8:00 PM

• Reporters Vent Fury at Great Firewall of China

  

  From the Sydney Morning Herald:

  Olympic Games organisers bore the brunt of international media frustration yesterday as key global internet sites were shut down and the speed of the internet connections reduced to levels not seen for a decade.

  In a double-barrelled attack, the BOCOG officials were also quizzed about the ongoing thick pollution that has enveloped Beijing. Games organisers had based their entire Games strategy on Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and Peoples’ Olympics, but two out of three elements were failing, the reporters claimed.

  Journalists from international publications protested about internet speeds “10 times slower than at the Sydney Olympic Games eight years ago” and the apparent censorship of websites, especially those from other news organisations.

  For more information on the smog that has accumulated over Beijing, see the Associated Press report:

  The Chinese capital was shrouded in thick gray smog on Sunday, just 12 days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. One expert warned that drastic measures enacted to cut vehicle and factory emissions in the city were no guarantee skies would be clear during competitions.

  The pollution was among the worst seen in Beijing in the past month, despite traffic restrictions enacted a week ago that removed half of the city’s vehicles from roadways.

  For more information on internet speed and censorship, see the Herald Sun:

  Today, some media in the Main Press Centre (MPC) struggled to view various international news websites, including the BBC’s Chinese service and appledaily.com.

  There are concerns that once the 22,000 media expected at the Games arrive, connections will become even slower.

  » Read more
  • July 27, 2008 10:42 AM

• Wearing Masks, Losing Face

  

  To wear or not to wear a mask, that is the dilemma many Olympic athletes will be faced with in a couple of weeks when the Summer Games commence in Beijing. From The Wall Street Journal:

  Chinese officials insist the notorious Beijing air will be cleaner by August, making such contraptions unnecessary. Concerned about the pollution, the U.S. Olympic Committee is distributing a high-tech mask, developed in secrecy, to its more than 600 Olympians. If athletes deploy it, they risk insulting the hosts. Then there’s the geek factor.

  “I probably will want to wear it,” says the 26-year-old Mr. Shoemaker, who plans to have his mask on nearly all the time he’s in Beijing when not competing. “Whether I will be allowed to is a different issue.”

  Though the practice is less common today, Chinese for years have worn masks to protect their lungs from the country’s heavy dust and pollution. But foreigners wearing them during the Games this summer — particularly at the opening ceremony broadcast to billions of television viewers around the world? That’s a different matter.

  Having foreigners cover their faces at the Olympics could mean a loss of face for the Chinese. “When you’re walking around with a mask on, you’re basically saying, ‘You guys stink,’ ” says Scott Schnitzspahn, performance director of the U.S. triathlon team.

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  • July 21, 2008 9:23 PM

• China Disputes Criticism of Its Air-Pollution Data

  

  From The Wall Street Journal:

  Chinese officials defended the accuracy of pollution data and reaffirmed their ability to make the Beijing Games a “green Olympics,” even as the capital remains mired in gray haze less than a month before the opening ceremony.

  Separately on Thursday, the government announced it will roll out free public transportation for Olympics ticket holders, the latest measure aimed at reducing traffic during the Games and cutting the polluting emissions from Beijing’s more than three million cars.

  Beijing officials claim to have significantly improved air quality, with just over two-thirds of the days last year meeting national health guidelines, up from only 20% a decade earlier. But some analysts have charged that pollution standards have been loosened, air-quality-monitoring stations have been moved and data have been manipulated to show better results.

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  • July 11, 2008 7:20 PM

• Where Breathing Is Deadly

  

  From New York Times:

  China’s biggest health disaster isn’t the terrible Sichuan earthquake this month. It’s the air.

  The quake killed at least 60,000 people, generating a response that has been heartwarming and inspiring, with even schoolchildren in China donating to the victims. Yet with little notice, somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 Chinese die prematurely every year from the effects of outdoor air pollution, according to studies by Chinese and international agencies alike.

  In short, roughly as many Chinese die every two months from the air as were killed in the earthquake. And the problem is becoming international: just as Californians can find Chinese-made shoes in their stores, they can now find Chinese-made haze in their skies.

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  • May 24, 2008 11:21 PM

• The Great Smog of Guangzhou

  

  Tang Hang’s blog on China Dialogue brings up some startling facts about growing air pollution problems in Guangzhou:

  Smog is becoming an ever more frequent feature of Guangzhou’s weather, and levels of particulate matter in the air are increasing too. As a result, more people are suffering the symptoms of respiratory diseases, which include shortness of breath, coughs, dizziness, weakness, nausea and even the loss of temper. But since the situation seemingly presents no immediate threat to life, it is easy to ignore.

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  • May 7, 2008 1:11 AM

• China ‘Now Top Carbon Polluter’

  

  From BBC News:

  China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.

  The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

  The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

  They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

  The team admit there is some uncertainty over the date when China may have become the biggest emitter of CO2, as their analysis is based on 2004 data.

  Read also Forecasting the Path of China’s CO2 Emissions Using Province Level Information by Maximilian Auffhammer and Richard T. Carson.

  » Read more
  • April 15, 2008 4:07 AM