A haze descended on Beijing for four consecutive days earlier this week and made a fitting backdrop for state environmental regulators to announce emergency measures that they'll put in place if air pollution remains a problem. More power plants and manufacturing facilities could be shut down, and more cars pulled from the roads, according to a news release from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
This second wave of shut-downs would affect small solvent factories that had previously been overlooked because of their relatively low pollutant emissions as compared to iron factories or coal plants. As The New York Times reports:
Many smaller factories that use solvents generate volatile organic compounds, commonly referred to as VOCs, which can contribute to ozone and smoggy skies.
"For Beijing city, a key variable for determining smog levels is VOCs," said Deborah Seligsohn, China climate program director for the World Resource Institute. "If you cut the car levels without cutting VOCs, you can end up with the problem they've faced in the last week. Cutting over 200 factories sounds like the right move."
Beijing officials report that major air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter are generally 20 percent lower this year than in July of last year. However, as The Guardian reported on Monday:
According to the Beijing government, the amount of particulate matter in the air has failed to reach the national benchmark of 100mg a cubic metre for the past four days. [On July 28], it rose to 113, more than double the far tougher ideal standard of 50 set by the World Health Organisation.
Du Shaozhong, vice director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, blamed much of the recent air pollution on the weather, citing a rare lack of rain and wind to blow away accumulated emissions. On Tuesday, wind and rain cleared Beijing's skies and also halved the air pollution index (API) from 90 on Tuesday to 44 on Wednesday. An API above 100 indicates high levels of air pollution, 51-100 is moderate, and 50 and below is considered low in China. However, according to The Week:
For most of June, pollution in Beijing averaged 87.75 on a government index of 500 -- a level that Chinese officials consider safe. But that's still double the typical levels in most Western cities.
Chinese officials are hoping a storm front will bring relief.
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Gustavion Posted 4:18 am
01 Aug 2008
Simplestop.net - Stop postal junk mail, Protect the environment, Protect your identity.
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caniscandida Posted 7:13 am
01 Aug 2008
And yet, in the latest Newsweek, the China scholar Orville Schell cautions us, with the counsel that any criticism of China right now is going to backfire.
I for my part am already miserable for having inadvertently driven away our excellent, knowledgeable and beloved correspondent, Patrick in Beijing, perhaps because I offended him, or perhaps because I included links to Tiananmen Square and Tibet in something I posted in response to his own comment.
So, even though it feels very creepy and un-American, we are advised to lie low, for a month.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Wolverine Posted 8:33 am
01 Aug 2008
But from an athlete's perspective, China was a horrible choice for the Olympics. It would be an incredibly difficult decision, but if I qualified to participate, I'm almost positive I'd have to decline because of the disgustingly filthy air. Unfortunately, big decisions like this are not made for logical reasons, but for money, advertising, and in this case PR. While the Olympics themselves cause plenty of pollution and environmental destruction just by their taking place, holding them in a city where one can barely breathe because of pollution is ludicrous.
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planetthoughts Posted 8:24 pm
01 Aug 2008
This would also demonstrate the true nobility of the Chinese government, pulling its citizens away from the dangerous environment in Beijing, while providing a safe atmosphere for their foreign guests! True citizens of China would be glad to sacrifice themselves for the good of the country!
David Alexander
PlanetThoughts.org
Love your Planet.
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archigeek Posted 12:39 am
02 Aug 2008
The mellotron is your friend.
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Wolverine Posted 4:18 am
02 Aug 2008
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caniscandida Posted 7:07 pm
02 Aug 2008
http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/waterwaterev.html
Notice that Coleridge's exclamation is often misremembered as "... and not a drop to drink," when in fact he wrote, "nor any drop to drink."
In her adaptation of the first half of the exclamation, Sara made the happy discovery of "Air, air, everywhere," which is both triply alliterative and rhyming, and therefore more pleasing, sound-wise, than Coleridge's original.
Wolverine,
there is nothing substantial that we disagree on here. In fact, somewhere recently in the NYTimes there was something about the Kenyan marathon-runner who won the gold medal in 2004, refusing this time to compete in the marathon this time (he will run something shorter), for fear that the pollution will harm his lungs -- which means that that event, the marathon, will now be besmirched, or even falsified, because the man to beat will be bowing out.
And God protect all the competitors in water events, who have to deal with that dangerously polluted waterway! I happen to be rooting for the Canadian kayaker, Adam van Koeverden, the Canadian team's flag-bearer. He apparently is under terrific pressure to compete and win (again), so he will not back out -- but I certainly hope no harm comes to him.
On the basis of what we have read in Western journalism, Archigeek's impressive phrase, "whining, insecure, xenophobic creeps," seems quite justifiable. Patrick-in-Beijing would pooh-pooh that, were he still with us; and he might even point out that the same expression could easily be applied to far too many Americans. E.g., does anyone dare say the truth, that the sub-adolescent chanting of "USA! USA! USA!" is a kind of craven whining?; or that holding a presidential candidate in disdain for not wearing a flag-pin is surely a sign of insecurity?
And then, "The Simpsons" being so often a perfect mirror of what makes this beloved republic of ours so weird, consider what underlies the humor of that episode, when the Soccer World Cup is being played in the Springfield stadium, and the announcer makes the pre-game thrilling announcement, "We shall learn by the outcome of this game, which is the greatest country in the world!: Portugal!, or, Mexico!" Yes, whining, insecure, paranoid xenophobia is certainly present within our borders.
But all I was saying earlier was to repeat the advice of some experts, who tell us that critical statements by Westerners of the Chinese government will be received by most of the Chinese people as unacceptable insults, with the result that nothing good will be accomplished. I do not necessarily endorse that position; and like you and Archigeek, I find the current situation to be intolerably ticklish. Nevertheless, let us try to be patient, and think deeply about what our best course is, to express our concerns regarding all kinds of violations of human rights, as well as neglect of environmental problems.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Wolverine Posted 4:36 am
03 Aug 2008
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tui3 Posted 10:08 am
03 Aug 2008
In the longer term, I agree with other posters above that Western consumption of manufactured goods must decrease. I think that we in the West must find other ways to happiness than buying goods, a very high percentage of which only end up in landfills anyway. I think that Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping are helping to spread a very important message. In their film "What Would Jesus Buy?", Professor Bill McKibben says:
"In a hundred years Americans will find another way to have fun besides shopping. My worry is that we won't have time to evolve these changes at the usual rate - by then we will derail the earth's systems, especially its climate."
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