Air Quality at Stake

It has become a stunning trend lately among dwellers in mega-cities, in order to get rid of the hazard weather, to search for alternative residence in southern coastal area of the nation.

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Foggy days are not unusual for citizens of inland Chinese cities. Many of them, especially those in which the nation's heavy industries root, have to undertake environmental outcomes of rapid industrial development since the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1949. But rarely have metropolis such as Beijing and Shanghai ever encountered lasting strike of haze until early November in 2012. 
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Nowadays, China still relies heavily on coal burning for heat in winter time. Generally speaking, air quality nationwide is much worse during November to February period compared to the rest of the year. Sustaining daze attributed mainly to sharply increasing amount of fossil fuel burning as well as lacks of wind to dispel the fog. Even though degrading air condition seems inevitable in light of current energy supply structure in China, it is still quite confusing why such large-scale and persistent hazardous pollution happened across the whole country this winter.



Before the burst of this time daze-incident, seldom have the public paid attention to any kind of Air Quality Index (AQI) which monitoring and calculating the volume of pollutants including soot, particulate material, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, etc. The AQI usually ranged between 30 to 200, with lower number reflecting better air quality. Although the AQI appeared in the daily weather broadcasting since I had memories, people didn't understand the meaning of it. However, when the fog turned out to be too thick to even detect the outline of the building across the street, the AQI suddenly became a national siren against air pollution.      

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Picture description: Two photos were taken from the exact same spot in the most developed central business district area in Beijing. The innovative building in the middle is the new site of China Center Television (CCTV). The striking comparison helps to visualize the severity of the air pollution in Beijing.