Is This a Pandemic Being Born? - By Laurie Garrett. Here's how it would happen.
Children playing along an urban river bank would spot hundreds of grotesque, bloated pig carcasses bobbing downstream. Hundreds of miles away, angry citizens would protest the rising stench from piles of dead ducks and swans, their rotting bodies collecting by the thousands along river banks. And three unrelated individuals would stagger into three different hospitals, gasping for air. Two would quickly die of severe pneumonia and the third would lay in critical condition in an intensive care unit for many days. Government officials would announce that a previously unknown virus had sickened three people, at least, and killed two of them.
It reads like a movie plot -- I should know, as I was a consultant for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. Or this could be how pandemics begin. China's Electronic Waste Village - Photo Essays. Beijing Pollution: So Bad, Even Government Admits There's a Problem. This weekend, my family barricaded itself behind closed doors, with only the briefest of toilet breaks for our dog.
As the air pollution in Beijing reached record highs, the view from our 16th-floor downtown apartment dwindled to something more akin to a sandstorm in Afghanistan . Air purifiers that cost upwards of $1,000 ran at full throttle. Still, the haze permeated our living room, with pollution levels some 40 times what the World Health Organization (WHO) considers safe. Our kids climbed on the sofa and played make-believe, pretending they were on a slow boat from China to Thailand, where they were born. ( Airing Out Beijing: Inner Workings of the World’s Megacities ) On Jan. 14, Beijing authorities held a press conference to address what English-speaking residents have dubbed the Airpocalypse. Previously, the official reaction to bad-air days has tended toward denial or wounded aggression.
Chinese pollution: Residents urged to stay indoors after air quality reaches dangerous levels as sandstorm covers Beijing. Sandstorms engulfed the capital and other cities in the region on ThursdayResidents were told to stay inside or protect themselves with facemasks There is growing anger at pollution levels in the country Readings in cities across the north and east had reached 'hazardous' levels.
Spring Sandstorms Add to China's Bad Air Misery. Beijing, a city already notorious for its smog, has seen some of the worst air quality in memory over the first weeks of 2013.
Much of the blame has rightly been aimed at coal burning, the rising number of vehicles, the low quality of fuel standards and industrial pollution that blows in from surrounding regions. But this week the Chinese capital has been hit with an air quality disaster of a more ancient vintage: a sandstorm blowing out of the north. On Wednesday afternoon I sat in an office building on the city’s east side and could see across the city of some 20 million to the Fragrant Hills to the west, the sort of clarity that only happens a few times a year.
Then, within the space of an hour, visibility was back to the Beijing standard of a few blocks. (Here are some photo galleries documenting the dramatic changes.) Smog in Beijing: Babies hospitalised as air quality hits 'worst on record' Pollution in the city rises to 30 to 45 times above recommended safety levelsExperts warn the conditions could last another two daysResidents warned to stay indoors as pollution is trapped by low pressure By James Rush and Sara Malm Published: 02:10 GMT, 14 January 2013 | Updated: 15:47 GMT, 14 January 2013.
Thick smog forces in Beijing forces airlines to cancel flights as factories are shut down in an attempt to stop the pollution. Visibility was less than 100 metres in certain parts of eastern ChinaBeijing officials ordered 103 heavy-polluting factories to suspend productionSmog levels 20 times higher than World Health Organisation safety level By Associated Press Reporter.
China Is Burning Almost as Much Coal as Rest of the World Combined. Beijing Pollution: So Bad, Even Government Admits There's a Problem. Chinese Take Fight Against Water Pollution to Social Media. Jin Zengmin was in a betting mood.
Last month, the eyeglass entrepreneur from eastern China’s Zhejiang province announced that he would offer a $32,000 reward to the chief of the local environmental-protection department if he dared to swim in a nearby river for a mere 20 minutes. Jin’s wager, which was announced on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like social-media service in China, turned viral on the Internet. The environmental cadre, unsurprisingly, declined to swim in the polluted water.
After more than three decades of economic prosperity, China faces serious environmental challenges that are sure to be discussed during the National People’s Congress, the annual conclave currently underway in Beijing. A real Chinese pea souper! Cities shrouded in thick yellow fog spark fears pollution is getting to an all-time high. By Lee Moran Published: 14:29 GMT, 12 June 2012 | Updated: 00:10 GMT, 13 June 2012 Parts of China have been blanketed by thick yellowish cloud this week - sparking fears of pollution among its millions of inhabitants.
Witnesses in the metropolis of Wuhan said the haze appeared suddenly yesterday morning, with residents rushing to put on face masks. 'I looked out of my office window and couldn't believe my eyes,' said Li Yunzhong, describing the haze as opaque, with yellowish and greenish tinges. Fears of runaway pollution crisis in China as THIRD river mysteriously turns white. Industrial dumping of chemicals thought to be major cause of bizarre colouringsLast month the city of Chongqing woke up to find their river had turned redLocals complain they cannot use rivers for livestock drinking water or for washing and cleaning By Eddie Wrenn Published: 15:29 GMT, 10 October 2012 | Updated: 06:44 GMT, 11 October 2012 Furious villagers in eastern China are demanding the closure of a new stone quarry after it turned their river completely white.
Residents in Aodi, Zhejiang province, say the river is now so heavily polluted that they can't use it for drinking water for their livestock, nor are they able to water their crops. They say that since the quarry opened a few years ago, the water regularly turns white, as the quarry bosses use the river to drain away residue caused by blast-cleaning white stones, which are cut from pits beside the river.