Beijing smog

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This Was Beijing on Friday
This Was Beijing on Friday

This Was Beijing on Friday

Chinese capital all but disappears amid a dust storm and heavy pollution

(Newser) - Skyscrapers in Beijing disappeared into the haze and air quality plummeted as China’s capital was enveloped in a dust storm and heavy pollution on Friday. Concentrations of the tiny PM2.5 particles that can reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream entered a dangerous range on air quality monitoring...

A Tower That Fights Smog Is Waging a Battle in China

Smog Free Tower cleans up air within 65 feet of it

(Newser) - With pollution levels in pockets of India and China reaching deadly levels , innovators around the world are designing and engineering ways to fight the war on smog. One device, a 23-foot-tall wind-powered air purifier called the Smog Free Tower, sucks in air from its surroundings and filters out tiny pollution...

Beijing Advises Umbrellas to Shield Against Its Gross Snow

Meteorological Bureau warning means snow days aren't really fun

(Newser) - "The snow is very dirty! The snow is very dirty! The snow is very dirty!" This thrice-emphasized warning from Beijing's Meteorological Bureau appeared on Chinese social media site Weibo on Thursday after the country's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced the city's average air-quality index for...

China's Pollution Drives Some to Buy Canada Air in a Can
 China's Pollution 
 Drives Some to Buy 
 Canada Air in a Can 
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China's Pollution Drives Some to Buy Canada Air in a Can

7.7 liters of fresh Banff air sells for $15

(Newser) - It's come to this. Beijing's air pollution has gotten so bad— hitting red alert for the first time ever last week, prompting school and factory closures and restricting traffic for days, reports Weather.com —that some residents are not only staying indoors and wearing masks, they're...

Beijing Smog Triggers 2nd Red Alert

Levels will reach 20 times what the WHO considers safe

(Newser) - Beijing issued its second smog red alert of the month on Friday, triggering vehicle restrictions and forcing schools to close. A wave of smog is due to settle over the city of 22.5 million from Saturday to Tuesday. Levels of PM2.5, the smallest and deadliest airborne particles, are...

Beijing Issues First-Ever Red Alert for Smog

Factories, traffic to be restricted; schools may close

(Newser) - Beijing issued its first-ever red alert for smog on Monday, urging schools to close and invoking restrictions on factories and traffic that will keep half of the city's vehicles off the roads. The red alert—the most serious warning on a four-tier system adopted a little over two years...

China Tries to Ax New Year's Fireworks —Over Smog

Beijing advises against them as several cities ban them outright

(Newser) - Setting off fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year may be a centuries-old tradition, but the country's authorities are urging people to light fewer of them this week as cities fight a losing battle against relentless, toxic air pollution. Dozens of cites in China have outright banned lighting fireworks today...

Beijing Marathon Must-Have: Face Masks

Runners brave 'hazardous' smog levels

(Newser) - Tens of thousands of people took part in the 34th Beijing International Marathon yesterday, despite warnings that the city's notorious air pollution had reached "hazardous" levels and it would be wise to avoid exertion. Many runners were spotted wearing face masks or even gas masks, and organizers provided...

6M Cars Being Yanked From Road to Ease Pollution

Beijing restarts effort to clean up 'extremely grim' situation

(Newser) - China's government plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities. The plan also calls for filling stations in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities to switch to selling only the cleanest grades...

China's Smog Is 'Nuclear Winter' Bad

Crop scientist says the nation's food supply is at risk

(Newser) - Just how lousy is Beijing's air these days? Chinese President Xi Jinping found it necessary to demonstrate his support for the people by ... walking around and breathing yesterday. That's it. "Breathing the same air, sharing the same fate," read the headline on the state's official...

Cynical Chinese Taking Own Smog Readings

Rail against government's 'fog' label

(Newser) - The Chinese know smog when they see it—even when the government calls it "fog." So Beijing citizens are taking their own pollution readings. "If people know what their air is like, they are more likely to take action," said a researcher at an environmental group...

China Admits: It's Smog, not Fog

State-run media finally talking about health threats of pollution

(Newser) - Those shadowy days that appear in mid-afternoon in Beijing aren't just caused by fog after all, Chinese officials are finally admitting. It's throat-choking, eye-watering, blinding smog. And it's been so atrocious the last few days that authorities have had to cancel flights out of Beijing International Airport,...

12 Stories