This is really bad. NASA has published an image of the pollution haze taking over the North China Plain. Yes, it’s so bad that you can see it from space. Things were so bad that visibility dropped to 200m. The Chinese capital’s airport had to cancel 43 flights and delayed 80 more.
What Is This?
The first image — taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite — shows the situation on January 10. The entire North China Plain was covered with a grey pollution haze. You can also see white patches: that’s normal fog hanging below the haze. On the second image, you can see the skies on the next day: the heaviest pollution is mostly gone, moved by the wind.
What’s In The Haze?
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the haze is mostly made of two kinds of particles, PM10 and PM2.5. The number refers to their size: 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers. They are made of “dust, liquid drops and soot from burning fuel or coal.” Most of the pollution is made of PM2.5. These are highly reflective, which is why we can see them from space when their concentration is high enough.
How Does It Affect Humans?
The 10-micrometer particles enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems. The 2.5-micrometer particles can embed themselves deep in the lungs and occasionally enter the blood stream. These particles can cause cancer and extreme respiratory problems.
How Bad Is The Problem?
Extremely bad. The PM10 density was 560 micrograms per cubic metre of air. In the US, concentrations of 150 micrograms per cubic metre of air are considered beyond the limit.
But the PM2.5 concentration is even worse. On January 10, the concentration was literally off the scale. Things are so bad that the US Embassy in Beijing reports on the PM2.5 concentration level every hour.
What Causes This Problem?
Winter haze is caused by a combination of pollution and temperature inversion: cold air gets trapped by a blanket of warmer air above, causing a pocket that gets filled with pollution. In the case of China, it builds up pretty fast.
What’s China Doing About This?
Apparently, China is planning to monitor the concentration of PM2.5 in 2016. That may be too late for much of the population, which is deeply affected by the situation. It’s no coincidence that their architects are obsessed by air quality control inside their buildings. [NASA]
wardski
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:02 AMAnd WTF does the Australian Labor party want to introduce a Carbon Tax for??????? The whole world should be pooling $$ to fix Chinas $hit up
Chris
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 12:36 PMYou answered your own question with that stupid comment. We don’t want to go down that track so we have done the right thing. Wait until China has to do the same, we will have an industry that reduces polution that we can sell to China.
MrFaceplant
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 5:17 PMDon’t count on it
LeoWski
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 4:33 PM+1 (I agree!!)
Adam
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 12:58 PMI wonder how much Australian coal is causing that insane amount of pollution…
Kroo
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 3:01 PMA tax on carbon won’t change this. Carbon trading in those countries who have it, has become a fraud and a new way for illegal organisations to launder money. The only way to change this is for governments to put money into making alternatives real, not browbeat companies into providing alternatives. Governments need to lead, not tax the masses just to pass the buck into the hands of the rich, like Al Gore.
TsaRocket
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:24 AMI was in Beijing last October and the pollution is literally unreal. You cant see across the street it is that bad. It feels like there is no oxygen in the air.
Najam
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 1:13 PMThat’s the reason why labour cost is expensive in Weatern countries because of environmental regulations. Therefore, most of western countries relocated to China and causing pollution for that region. Today of everyone on this planet are getting cheap stuff from China so remember this picture. Though Chinese govy shud impose any laws and regulations but then stuff will not be cheaper any more. I think companies shud think ethically by themselves as well.
Box Guru
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 2:48 PMYou raise an interesting point. I wonder what the environment would be like if all foreign interests were removed from China for a year.
It’d devastate economies around the world but, would be an interesting experiment.
Dev
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8:23 PMThis just confirms even further the uselessness of the Australian carbon tax. It’s like we are PETA, promoting vegetarianism (by taxing meat eaters), while the rest of the world continues to eat meat.
-hh
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 3:10 AMWhat this really illustrates is the Law of Unintended Consequences: as we have erected Pollution Laws in the West, part of the response by manufacturers has been to export those jobs to overseas locations where it reamins cheaper to manufacture because of relatively lax pollution laws. The solution that should be considered is basically an Import Tariff that’s based on the pollution performance from where the goods were manufactured: this would offset the incentive to offshore to places where the less stringent polllution laws make goods cheaper to produce.
0hh