Sandstorm sends Beijing pollution levels off the charts
Officials are warning residents in Beijing and other parts of northern China about hazardous air pollution levels after strong winds blew in a sandstorm today.
Air in the capital turned a yellowish hue and the sky turned into a noxious soup of smog and dust, NBC News reports. At 6 a.m. local time, the U.S. Embassy’s air quality index showed a reading of 516 for particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. On the American air pollution index, the air at that time and throughout much of the morning was classified as “beyond index.”
Photo: This composite image shows Beijing’s skyline during Thursday’s sandstorm (top) and during good weather on Feb. 19, 2013. (Feng Li / Getty Images)
It’s odd that a sandstorm caused such awful air quality. They have plenty of other reasons to be concerned about the terrible air quality.
Nope, this is not a still from Blade Runner. It’s smog in Beijing.
Some of my friends in Beijing have said the air burns their eyes and lungs. Here’s a picture of my colleague with his double-barreled air mask. Intense. Note he’s wearing a trash bag to protect his suit from the dirty air when he goes out.
As we pointed out the other day, Beijing hit an extremely high level on the air-quality chart over the weekend. This is scary stuff, guys.
We need a new scale: On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which marks off the city’s air quality based on a 0-500 scale set by the EPA, detected air quality so bad that the Twitter account that updates people on the embassy’s air quality detection spat out a 755. 500 was supposed to be the maximum, by the way.
When I was inside the American Embassy, I didn’t have my family, and so I didn’t understand some things. After I was able to meet them, my ideas changed.Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng • During a phone interview conducted from his hospital room. After telling U.S. Ambadassor Gary Locke that he wanted to remain in China, Guangcheng has had a change of heart, and his now reportedly requesting asylum in the U.S. “He made it very, very clear from the very, very beginning that he wanted to stay in China,” said Locke, adding, “he wanted to be part of the struggle to improve the human rights within China.” When asked why he’d had such a sudden change of heart, Chen replied, “I feel very unsafe. My rights and safety cannot be assured here.” Guangcheng told reporters that his family is living under constant surveillance by the Chinese officials, and that several have threatened Chen and his family. source (via • follow)
One of the deacons returned to his home last Friday afternoon and the police came to ask him if he planned to attend the Easter Sunday service. He said yes, so the police said from this moment, you cannot leave this house. I spoke to him an hour ago, and he was still not able to leave the house.Shouwang Church member Kathy Lu • Describing what happened to one of the deacons before an attempted Easter service — authorities put him under house arrest. He and hundreds of others, in fact. But what’s absolutely bizarre is that while authorities arrested much of Shouwang Church’s congregation, the nearby Haidian Christian Church — which is state-sanctioned — was able to hold a service without any problems. The split emphasizes some big differences between the two churches — since Shouwang doesn’t tow to China’s regulations, it is “undergound” — a type of church that as many as 50 million Chinese people may take part in. We realize China has an atheist government and everything, but limiting this sort of free expression arbitrarily seems silly. source (via • follow)
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