Ever wonder what business-crippling, city-paralyzing smog looks like from space? We’re glad you’re just as curious as we are. Yes, the smog in the photo above is that big gray blob.
The satellite image comes from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which had this to say about the image:Heavy smog has shrouded much of eastern China, and air quality levels have been dropped to extremely dangerous levels. The heavy smog is caused by industrial pollution, coal and agricultural burning, and has been trapped by the mountains to the west and wind patterns. The thick haze of smog is clearly visible as the murky grey color in this true color VIIRS image from the Suomi NPP satellite.
Earlier this week, dangerous levels of smog practically shut down Harbin (photo above), a major city in China’s northeast region, as cities in the northern part of the country began turning on heating systems powered by coal. Research this year showed that the smog caused mainly by the burning of coal is causing drastic reduction in life span for people living in the region.
Reuters reports:The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter. Visibility was reportedly reduced to ten meters.
According to the Chinese national news agency Xinhua, smog levels topped five hundred micrograms per cubic meter of air particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, though Reuters says it reached a thousand micrograms per cubic meter in parts of the city. The World Health Organization recommends no more than twenty and considers three hundred to be hazardous. The smog emergency is also causing government-mandate stoppages in construction and factory production. In other words, business isn’t getting done in China because of smog. The worst part: this is completely avoidable. (And it’s causing cancer.)
While China is spending billions of dollars to fight air pollution, some of the measures that are being proposed will lead to a whole host of different environmental problems.
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