TIANANMEN SQUARE KILLER SMOG
BEIJING, CHINA, NOVEMBER 1, 2011: Living in San Diego, I have taken for granted the clean and relatively pollutant free air we enjoy. Sure, occasionally, a bus or truck will belch and enclose me in a brief cloud of poison but I can take that.
Not so in Beijing. Since I arrived in China’s capitol, I have been absorbed into a yellow gray mass of crud. When you are on the streets, everything is covered by a dark haze which blocks out the sun and can limit your visibility to 400+ yards or less. Taking a look at some video I had taken, every picture has the yellow haze.
After two days, going from meeting to meeting on business, I started a hacking cough, my eyes were becoming fountains – I felt lousy. Not connecting the dots (flunked pre-med), I thought I was coming down with some flu. To me, this was a reasonable diagnosis since my around the world trip has exposed me to a vast array of bacteria, viruses and bad bugs in general.
Slowly, however, I recognized that when I was in an office building with filtered air, my symptoms seemed to subside. Finally, I was connecting the dots.
Was the China miracle making me sick?
Then I picked up the China Daily and was stunned to see the headline “Air quality suffers due to smog” written by Wang Qian. This headline proved to be a major understatement. The article went on to say that Beijing’s meteorological bureau had issued its first winter “fog alert” because low visibility had caused the closure of six major highways and caused delays/cancellations of 200+ flights from the city! When is the last time you remember any major American city shutting down highways and canceling flights because of fog – or is it fog?
The article goes on to quote Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, who said that the hazes that have been smothering Beijing were really smog. China’s Air Pollution Index put out by China’s Ministry of environmental Protection rated Beijing as the worst polluted city in all of China for the last two days. The government warned everyone to stay inside and in some cases, as with children’s events, all outdoor events should be cancelled.
For those of you who have suffered through Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York smog, I can assure you that Beijing has these cities all beat for smog/pollution intensity which raises a very interesting issue.
To what point can China maintain its policies of aggressive economic growth at the expense of the environment. Can Chinese workers in cities like Beijing really work productively if they are breathing air injurious to their health and/or their children’s ?
China’s leaders acknowledge their obligations to protect the environment. While this is to be commended, the major problem is that it is taking China a long time to effectively address these environmental issues. In the meantime, many people and the environment are paying a high price for this delayed response.
