First-Ever Beijing Red Alert Slows China’s Capital on Tuesday, Dec. 8

Summary: The first-ever Beijing red alert, in effect from Tuesday, Dec. 8, to Thursday, Dec. 10, slows China's capital as restricted car use reduces traffic.

Northern China's recurring smog problems have produced the first-ever Beijing red alert; smog over eastern China, with Beijing at top center, in true color image obtained Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002, by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Aqua satellite: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center issued the first-ever Beijing red alert, taking effect from 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 8, through noon on Thursday, Dec. 10, for hazardous air pollution levels.

Removal of the first-ever Beijing red alert hinges upon a cold front, forecast to arrive on Thursday afternoon. Until removal of the alert, activities in China’s capital noticeably slow as traffic greatly reduces, with two million private cars taken off Beijing’s streets. Car use is restricted to alternating days as determined by even or odd numbers of license plates. The same even/odd basis bans 30 percent of government cars from road use. Elementary and secondary schools close, production stops or decreases, and outdoor construction halts.

During the red alert, an additional 21,000 to 25,000 buses on Beijing’s streets ease the burden of an extra two million passengers on the public transportation system. The supplemental fleet includes 8,182 clean-energy buses.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection, a national, cabinet-level ministry, has identified the dominant pollutant as toxic PM2.5, microscopic airborne particles sized at less than 2.5 micrometers.

Xue Jianjun, senior engineer at the National Meteorological Center, said: “Factory discharges and unfavorable weather conditions -- mainly slow wind speed and high humidity -- are the leading factors in air pollution this time.”

Made up of heavy metals and toxic organic compounds, 2.5 particulate matter is released into the atmosphere through automobiles, vegetative burning (brush and forest fires, yard waste), construction site dust and industrial processes. Linked to serious cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, PM2.5 easily enters the blood stream and penetrates lungs.

The first-ever Beijing red alert upgrades an orange alert, the second highest level, issued on Saturday, Dec. 5. The red alert marks the second week of hazardous air pollution alerts, with an orange alert previously issued for Sunday, Nov. 29, through midnight, Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The red alert is the highest level in the four-tier emergency air-pollution response system in operation since October 2013. The color-coded system designates the four levels, from lowest to highest, with blue, yellow, orange and red alerts.

Two weeks of alert triggers coincides with two weeks of critical global warming meetings at Paris’ Le Bourget Centre for 21st annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), known as COP 21. At a COP 21 press briefing on Tuesday, Dec. 8, Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative for Climate Change, acknowledged the first-ever Beijing red alert as symptomatic of the urgent need to dovetail solving “the environmental issue and working to address climate change.”

Spikes in sales of air purifiers and masks, as well as surges in searches and online discussions on specific products reveal the urgency of the end-of-the-year spate of fog.

“I have sold out of all my stock, but customers can place orders and we will deliver within two weeks,” said a shop owner at Taobao, an online shopping website operated by China’s ecommerce giant, Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

Heavy smog obscures much of Beijing's National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest; image credit Xinhua/HuQingming: China Xinhua News @XHNews, via Twitter Dec. 9, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Northern China's recurring smog problems have produced the first-ever Beijing red alert; smog over eastern China, with Beijing at top center, in true color image obtained Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002, by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Aqua satellite: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pollution_over_east_China.jpg

Heavy smog obscures much of Beijing's National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest; image credit Xinhua/Hu Qingming: China Xinhua News @XHNews, via Twitter Dec. 9, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/XHNews/status/674603334989307904

For further information:

"Beijing issues first red alert for heavy air pollution." Xinhua News. Dec. 7, 2015.
Available @ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/07/c_134893622.htm

"Bye-bye blue: More smog settling in." China.org > Environment > Top News. Dec. 7, 2015.
Available @ http://china.org.cn/environment/2015-12/07/content_37251311.htm

"China Headlines: Beijing issues first red alert for smog." Xinhua News. Dec. 7, 2015.
Available @ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/07/c_134894036.htm

China Xinhua News @XHNews. "Emergency measures under Beijing #smog red alert cut pollutant emissions by 30%: ministry." Twitter. Dec. 9, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/XHNews/status/674603334989307904

Marriner, Derdriu. "Hazardous Air Pollution Levels Trigger Orange Alert for Beijing." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/hazardous-air-pollution-levels-trigger.html

"Severe smog brings mask panic buying." Xinhua News. Dec. 8, 2015.
Available @ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/08/c_134897493.htm

Tatlow, Didi Kirsten. "Beijing's Red Alert for Pollution Rekindles Anger and Confusion." The New York Times > World > Asia Pacific. Dec. 8, 2015.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/asia/beijing-smog-red-alert-schools.html

Wong, Edward. "Beijing Issues Red Alert Over Air Pollution for the First Time." The New York Times > World > Asia Pacific. Dec. 7, 2015.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/world/asia/beijing-pollution-red-alert.html