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Severe Smog in Beijing Prompts Smog Research

posted by janrinok on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-could-see-me-now dept.

hankwang writes:

"For the past couple of days, China's capital has been suffering under severe smog, leaving the sun and skyscrapers barely visible. The highest concentration of small airborne particles (PM2.5) was 0.50 mg per cubic meter, a factor 20 above the Word Health Organization's safe limit. Scientists went as far as comparing this to a nuclear winter. The worst seems to be over for now: today, the monitors are reading 0.180 mg/m3, only a factor 7 above the WHO limit.

The Chinese smog seems to behave differently from the smog in Europe and the US. Existing scientific models developed in the West do not work well. To improve the models and understanding, plans are underway to build a 600 cubic-meter (that's 21,000 cubic ft or 160,000 US gallon) transparent dome as a smog chamber."

[NOTE TO EDITOR: I can't get slashcode to display the mu symbol, so I converted to milligrams] [Ed's Note: Thankyou - but what is it in firkins?]

 
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  • (Score: 1) by iNaya on Monday March 03 2014, @02:02AM

    by iNaya (176) on Monday March 03 2014, @02:02AM (#9922)

    There is a difference between being anti-Chinese, and being anti-leadership, or even anti on a particular topic. Please do not confuse the this. I'm sure the people who actually live in Beijing have much worse things to say about their local government than any of those linked articles do. After all, nobody likes to live in heavy pollution.

    The Chinese government, is very adept at many things. Despite some setbacks, they have built one of the best transport systems in the world. In recent years, they've done an amazing job of preventing their economy of boiling over, and people for the most part are well fed. More than certain Western countries can say. However, pollution control is not one of their strengths. Why would you want to defend this?

    Your government is not an object of worship! Is is a group of individual, normal people. Some power hungry, some meek, some wanting to make a difference, and some wanting to make a buck.

    The fact that Chinese people often get very offended when they feel criticized when something goes wrong in China means they (the particular people who get defensive) have a high level of insecurity. There is no need to be ashamed when foreigners see your problems! We all have problems of some kind.