Beijing hits 'blue sky' target despite bad air
Local youngsters are seen playing on a frozen lake at Shichahai, in central Beijng. City authorities said they had met their target of "blue sky" days for 2011, amid growing public criticism that officials are underplaying the pollution problem in the Chinese capital.
Beijing authorities said they had met their target of "blue sky" days for 2011, amid growing public criticism that officials are underplaying the pollution problem in the Chinese capital.
The city had 274 days of "grade one or two" air quality compared with 252 days in 2010, according to a statement on the Beijing government's official news portal, posted on Sunday.
"Beijing has seen an overall decline in the concentration of various pollutants in 2011," said Zhuang Zhidong, the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
But Zhuang admitted that Beijing also experienced "several days of poor air quality as a result of bad weather conditions".
China uses a five-grade classification system to rate its air quality, with one being the best and five the worst.
But the environment ministry is under pressure to change the way it measures air quality after thick smog blanketed Beijing earlier this month, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and triggering a surge in face mask sales.
Public anger over heavy pollution has been compounded by official data showing air quality is good, or only slightly polluted, when smog is visible and figures published by the US embassy rank it as "very unhealthy".
Chinese authorities currently use a method known as PM10, focusing on larger particles in the air.
But the environment ministry has proposed adopting the system favoured by the US embassy, which measures the smallest and most dangerous airborne pollution, known as PM2.5.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Hypothetical desert earth
21 hours ago
-
More human population = greater mass?
May 25, 2012
-
Conversion from aircraft bearing to normal degrees
May 23, 2012
-
Interpretation/Analysis of the Lab results(HEPA filter)
May 22, 2012
-
Has anyone here attended the The Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology?
May 22, 2012
-
Earthquakes: Mag 6 N. Italy and Mag 5.6 W. Bulgaria
May 21, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Earth
More news stories
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
4 hours ago |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
5
|
Yale study concludes public apathy over climate change unrelated to science literacy
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match ...
6 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
12
|
10 million years needed to recover from mass extinction
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
6 hours ago |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
|
Sophisticated simulations predict future warming
The chances of our planet being hit by a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is as likely as it being hit by an increase of 1.4 degrees, new research shows. Presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, the British study ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 22, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
51
Aliens don't want to eat us, says former SETI director
Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies, according to a recent statement by former SETI director Jill Tarter.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 25, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (15) |
41
Stunning image of smallest possible five-ringed structure
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure – about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you'll probably recognise its shape.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Scientists develop ultra-sensitive test that detects diseases in their earliest stages
Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages, in research published today in the journal Nature Materials.
Dec 18, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
Anyone who has been to Beijing unanimously agrees the pollution problem is terrible. And it's getting much worse. They should actually work on improving their air quality instead of skewing the data.
Dec 18, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Dec 18, 2011
Rank: 1.7 / 5 (3)
I've never been to Beijing, but I'm waiting for the Phobos-Grunt biggest piece to fall on Hu Jintao's palace while he's home. He and all his komrades can escape the polluted air in the city, but the Chinese people who work and live there aren't going nowhere. It's a question also, in Beijing, of the haves and the have-nots. The rich Communists against the poor, downtrodden, poverty-stricken Chinese peasants who have no other air but Beijing air. Those damn RICH Commies. How dare they do that to the Chinese peasants.
REVOLUTION IS NEEDED. Chinese peasants rise up and take the rich down. Democracy for all.
:)) Proletariats Unite!!
Dec 19, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
But I have been in an Australian City where you could only just see the outline of a city building at 2 blocks away at midday, through the thick brown air.
Very bad. Very very bad. With a cough cough here and and a cough cough there, here a cough, there a cough, everywhere a cough cough.
Very bad.
Dec 19, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
yep. . .time for them to get their comeuppance.
Glad Kim Jong Il has left the building. :)