This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Peak Smog: Shanghai Orders Cars Off Roads As Pollution Literally Off The Charts
“It’s horrible out there,” notes one resident as an orange-level haze alert, the second highest, remained in effect broadly across China and, as Bloomberg reports, the heavy fog shrouding Shanghai caused widespread flight cancellations and sent the air quality index surging past 500 to the “beyond index” category. “The pollution is worse today and the fog is getting heavier,” another noted, and despite the WHO concerns that outdoor air pollution can cause lung cancer, he is "not prohibiting my kids from going outside because we have to learn to grow up in all kinds of environment. But they are definitely wearing face masks.” The government has ordered 30% of government-used vehicles off the road and industrial companies to reduce or halt production.
Via Bloomberg,
A heavy fog shrouding Shanghai caused widespread flight cancellations and sent an air quality index monitored by the U.S. consulate in the city surging past 500 to the “beyond index” category. Hong Kong’s air pollution index reached “very high” levels at three roadside monitors, according to its Environment Protection Department.
...
Shanghai took emergency steps against pollution, ordering 30 percent of government-used vehicles off the road and industrial companies to reduce or halt production, the city said on its microblog.
...
“Under the new index, we are not only reflecting the concentration levels of the key air pollutants but also the health risks associated with those pollutants.”
Levels of PM2.5 -- particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that pose the biggest health risk -- were 602.2 micrograms per cubic meter in Shanghai, more than 24 times WHO’s recommended levels, the city’s monitoring center data showed.
...
At least half of the students at the Origin Education Children’s House, a private kindergarten in Shanghai, didn’t show up today, said Qian Ying, a teacher at the school. The kindergarten also canceled all outdoor activities, Qian said.
Masks and air purifiers have mostly sold out,
...
At least 102 outbound flights and 122 inbound flights were delayed at Shanghai’s two airports in Pudong and Hongqiao, while 28 outbound flights and 29 inbound were cancelled,
...
An orange-level haze alert, the second highest, remained in effect, according to China’s meterological authority. Elevated highways were facing heavy congestion with some highway entrances closed and some river traffic halted
...
“It’s horrible out there,”
»
- 16568 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
< meh > some forms of idiocracy fix themselves...
Nothing 2,000,000,000 Teslas won't fix.
+314% YTD
BTFNYFI
I'd love to see a breakdown on the sources of all that crap - my guess is that most isn't even from cars (though I'm sure they're not helping).
On a side note - JFC folks - those paper dust masks don't do shit other than maybe keeping stuff the size of sawdust out of your lungs and keep any germ-laden spit from you out of others folks lungs.
I'm not even sure if an OSHA charcoal-activated filter would offer you enough protection to feel comfortable breathing that shit.
"Here kids, learn how to breath toxic filth." Those "lessons" are going to go just great I bet.
This should open your eyes a wee bit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_stations_in_Shanghai
~15 Giga Watts of coal fired capacity...
A flux capacitor only requires 1.21 gigawatts
20% of all the CO2 emissions in the world come from 2 river basins in China.
Bullish Oreck air purifiers
Fanfuckingtastic then that the Chinks are exempt from Kyoto. That right there shows what sort of bullshit we're dealing with when it comes to Western "leadership".
Could you remind us whether the US ratified Kyoto? And how many countries ratfied and and are actually working towards their goals?
The US didn't ratify but we still have this http://americancarbonregistry.org/
Other Western nations did and their weak leadership is imposing the carbon credit bullshit on the taxpayers. It's another money grab overseen by JPM.
I'm not a proponent fyi. Just another religion where paying a pittance is absolving one from the sin of pollution.
Agreed, that is why a revenue neutral carbon tax is the way to go...
It's a "Code Orange"? How much worse does it have to get for it to be a "Code Red" day? Good grief.
This should grab your attention: "Shanghai PETROCHEMICAL Power Station"??????
Hmm, so hot and sour air isn,t supposed to be on the menu? How about chunky style?
Right, they at least need the kind of filter masks that car painters and welders (sometimes) wear. The pink filters or whatever. The world is coming to resemble sci-fi dystopia more and more except where the fuck is my flying car?
No frying car for you! You get dwone!
They will be able to light the air on fire if it gets any more saturated with petrochemicals. Nice!! That would be something to see, well maybe from orbit that is.
At their current production rate Tesla should have those cars ready in about 100,000 years.
Im afraid there could be even more smoke when Teslas are circulating in masses.
Won't all the Tesla battery fires cause even more toxic pollution?
Teslas use electricity - which comes from power stations. How dumb can one get?
You don;t have to burn coal, you know....
Certainly--the effects of almost 2 billion people living under a modified form of heavy-handed communism. A complete failure of humanity on a very large scale. We bitch about the EPA, and although it is certainly not perfect, the US has come a long way since the 1970s. That's the power of treating people as individuals and acting in at least a quasi-open, quasi-democratic fashion. China needs to grow up.
But it's a good lesson to be learned by the kids! They will evolve with super and much stronger lungs as result! The future Chinaman will look a bit like a worm crossed with a roach. No problems breathing in shit.
If they "grow up" then who is going to make all our stuff?
China's "one lung" policy.
Welcome to Dickensian China.
unfettered capitalism at work
China most certainly does not operate under a capitalist system. It's a completely corrupt governance at every level that has led to this problem. You speak out, you get a summary execution and you get buried in a ditch dug by a bulldozer. Capitalism is forever blamed for every problem--was the pollution during the industrial revolution caused by capitalism or by mere greed and ignorance? I think a good case can be made for clean air as a valuable resource, and it's not like we lack the technology, it's just rank stupidity and corruption that have led them to not being able to breathe.
It's sort of poetic if a billion people all just suffocate. The earth shrugs us off like fleas. The universe sure as hell doesn't give a shit if we go extinct.
You do have to wonder with those new coal power stations set to be built in the next year or two in China, whether the Communists will actually be living in the country that they govern. Or maybe their offices will be in New York?
"unfettered capitalism at work"
Uhh right, the Communist Party practicing unfettered Capitalism... One of us needs to open a dictionary. (Hint: it's not me)
Do you find yourself always being fooled by packaging and labeling? You know, when you you think you have something and then upon closer inspection you find out that it isn't what you thought it was?
Yeah because the 19th century and well into the early 20th century model of capitalism as practiced by Western Europe, US, and then other industrialized nations failed miserably at dealing with the effects of pollution.
The west has found ways to power their industries without polluting the air, but it is not inexpensive. China on the other hand has chosen to ignore the environmental consequences. Which is part of the reason for their cheaper manufacturing costs. It appears the west exported their pollution along with most of their manufacturing jobs to China.
"China most certainly does not operate under a capitalist system. It's a completely corrupt governance at every level that has led to this problem."
Let me guess. American? The economic system of a nation has little to do with the governance style of a nation.
The USA now has a mild dirigsme model with socialism, capitalism, and a rapidly devolving Constitutional Republic that has become a Banking Elite Oligarchy.
China is far more Capitalistic than the USA, and it's far LESS socialistic. There are few, if any, social welfare programs or safety nets.
China is just a looting operation as the USA is a looting operation.
The Elite funnel most of the money and profits to themselves in China and the USA, with the exception being that in China they lie that 'The People' own the SOE's. Only party insiders own them and profit.
Before you shoot your mouth off, I live in China, conduct business in China, have a business in China, and have lived in China for 5 years.
I'm trying to imagine the Chinese visiting Los Angeles years ago and thinking "how can we get a piece of this action?"
Everybody knows the Red Chinese economy is all smoke and mirrors.
This is the smoke part.
The mirrors come in when they look at themselves on their death bed, dying of cancer.
This is the world's first self-genocidal culture - proving that despite all intelligence and knowledge, ultimately, left to its own judgements of right and wrong, humanity is depraved and will eliminate itself from the face of the Earth.
-30-
For the deathbed part, they have had death panels for generations. Not a lot of end of life care will be expended.
Growth. Ain't it grand?
AND THAT'S WHY WE DON'T WANT ANYMORE FACTORIES IN AMERICA OR EUROPE!!!
we lose about 10% of our production a year right now since 2008. That doesn't meave that much left anymore.
Moar groath!!!
Chinese transparency....it's thick
Bullish!
I wonder whether there are still any animals left in such a city? They would flee, but the smart animals (humans) don't. They rather die there. What's the matter with these people??
Good point. I wonder how many pidgeons there are in those places?
I think the pidgeons are more worried about the Chinese cook pot.
In China, pidgeons are food.
"It's a...it's smiling at me."
Almost anything is good fried.
I have eaten pidgeon in China. It was excellent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oUkVw8W10
http://eattheinvaders.org/nutria-3/
I'll have the radioactive pigeon stew with organic rat broth and a glass of water from that river that occasionaly turns neon green and always has the dead pigs and dogs floating in it, please.
I've eaten pigeon in Toronto (huge Chinese population). Baked with 5 spice, very tasty but you have to work to get the meat out.
It amuses me that the Chinese (e.g. my ex-wife) like to eat food with the head attached - shrimp, lobster, fish, poultry, even pig. She said it was a custom so that people knew what they were eating.
My new GF, OTOH, can't stand it. She prefers her food as anonymous slabs of flesh, with no hint they were ever alive.
Me? If it tastes good, I'll eat it. Draw the line at Chicken feet, though.
I'd prefer it if humans could just grow the meat somehow and not have to raise all these animals and then slaughter them. It's barbaric in many ways, and yet, I understand that I require animal protein because the whole vegetarian protein thing eventually leaves you very sickly. We're at odds with our evolutionary origins. The human race either has to transcend or go extinct.
The future is massive warehouses raising brainless chicken.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/the-future-of-farming-is-brain-dead-chickens/
I don't even know how to metally process that.
yes, and here's the oil they will be using to fry you urban avian delicacy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJOLCvPm5Dg
Fried carcenigens.....Yum.
That is about the most discusting thing I have ever seen (some of the related videos go into even greater detail).
I'd rather eat vomit than something cooked in that shit.
Why leave the heads on? Is that some kind of sign of authenticity to them?
I imagine this is what pidgeons look like after flying 20' thru chinese air pollution......
What do you have against squab? At least they're not as noisy and annoying as my ducks.
In China, babies are food?
Lots. They're pretty much flying rats. I've been in Shanghai and Beijing when it looked like this (I'm sure this is worse, but I've got some scary pictures). There are probably as many birds and squirrels there as you'd see in the concrete canyons of any huge city.
When I get back from a week or two over there I have to wash all my clothes a couple of times and have everything else dry-cleaned; I leave my suitcase and such outside for a few days, too. Eventually the smell of burning coal fades. Once in a while I'll come across something I've missed and that heave petrochemical combustion stench just wafts. The death toll from pollution-related ailments must be in the millions. But when you have 1.X billion, maybe you don't care.
don't worry, the invisible hand will take care of this!
remember nature is an externality
all hail the free market in all its glory!
How dare you even hint that my right to pollute as much as I like should be fettered in any shape or form...
Troll much?
Technology is value neutral. It constantly surprises me how few people understand the implications of that, despite the historic record.
go back to sleep dip$hit. the american dream suits you well...
I nominate your post for non sequitur of the thread...
thank you.
In case you did not notice, my reply was not to you...
But you are welcome in any event....
got it!
That comment makes no actual sense at all.
It's probably a good idea to make sure all 1.3 billion Chinese have two cars in every household. Growth at any cost is all that matters.
that is the future GM is banking on.
Relax doc, they're packing up and going to the moon in 2020, just got to deal with the smog a bit more than expected while they build the rockets.
Once they move the factories to the moon, then they can vent the toxins into open space... No regulations necessary.
The alternative to growth-at-all-costs is rolling riots of 1.3 million people at a shot.
Those guys are trapped.
The canary should be dead by now.
...last words were "fuk mei!"...
Meanwhile in the good old USSA, your car's tailpipe had better pass the pollution sniff test or it's heavy fines and no sticker for you!
Move to China then if that is too onerous for you....
Cars are not fined, trucks are very rarely, correct me if I am mistaken....
Not in the upper midwest.
Oh cry me a river.
Pittsburgh, 1955. Give 'm 15 years. Until then, they are all flocking here to places like SF, LA and Sugar Land for schools, clean air and so on.
That's a strange concept of "all" you have ...
Meanwhile in California, starting January 1st, new set of tough rules will eliminate all competition from small trucking companies, since it's cost prohibitive for them to install temporary (only good for few years) exhaust filters. I'm sure that will more than offset the smog being generated in China, India, and other places, and make the world a better place.
OK, enough of that, back to watching the soap opera unfold.
Make it a better place for me next time Im ridin through Cali on the MC and get stuck behind some truck spewing shit in my face. But hey sometiimes its just the little things ya know?
Capacitor busses, gentlemen!
The Chinese banned new coal plants in three areas in Sept 2013...
http://globalnews.ca/news/835453/china-bans-new-coal-fired-plants-in-3-regions/
Too little too late I would venture...
Had to laugh about this take on it:
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12437
I wasn't aware that Obama's all out war on coal was a factor in this...
30% fewer Chinese drivers makes the world a safer place whether or not it reduces emissions.
100% fewer drivers using cell phones while trying to get from point A to Point B would dramatically make the world a better safer place. Hmmmm, wonder where most those folks live?
Its called progress......actually its more like London in 1880......the London Fog......maybe they will get a good coat out of it...a Mao look to it..cool daddy-o
comparing china and india to england is laughable and actually quite idiotic. think of the scale, china has 100 'londons' as does india....there is no comparison.
Looks more "Blade Runner" to me.
Yeah, Mordor was not as technically advanced....
On the bright side, the pollution in major urban centers could make the ghost cities more attractive.
And this is the 2nd most expensive real estate market in the world? Right below the equally polluted Beijing (Peking) and jsut above the off-the-charts radioactive Tokyo?
The apartments in Shanghai better be equipped with air filtration systems... and the nottest fashin accessory will be a gas mask with buil-in iphone
That's not fog, I can just barely see Spicoli's van down there.
But they have free medical care, so it's OK.
China has to have some way of contolling it's population. It will just get sick and die at some point.
There is s direct correlation to this pollution and Chinese 'productivity.' All those efficiency gains comes at the cost of destroying the country in which the workers live. This is exactly what will happen to the West if we try to compete with them on their own terms. This is our future.
Chinese productivity as come at the cost of American jobs. Corproate America has subsidized the rape of a people controlled by our enemy. Insuring that our enemy will remain. Payback will be a motherfucker.
We exported our pollution, too, though. You have to give American banksters some credit, they know a good mark when they see one!
long uranium
they should hold the Sotchi Langlauf (cross country) in Peking; ideal fog for a cross country where you only see the winner at 5 metres from finish line!
The thrilla in Beijing...All they need is Putin snow! They have the rest!
They will eventually sort it out like the west did. The elites fear the plebs too much. Too bad they have to endure increased cancer rates for a while. But hey, at least they're not bathing in rivers of shit and rotting flesh like their southern neighbors.
Keep screwing and keep pumping out welfare babies...ass, gas or grass...no one rides for free!
You could end all welfare spending across the board and not reduce the national budget by much more than a rounding error.
This is what you get when you agree to import much of the West's industrial polution. Short term gain, very long term pain. China could well collapse under environmental problems/polution over the next 10-20 years.
In Oklahoma back in the 1950's becasue they had a good coal supply they went with a lot of coal fired power plants to attract and promote industry with low priced power, to prevent rhw smog out that killed people as in the notorious London, England incident, they mandated stack filters and they worked pretty well you got mostly water vapour and carbon dioxide. Of course some of the old timers didin't quite get the whole anti polution movement. When they removed to the stack filters to clean them they hosed the run off into local creeks, and where surprised when people jumped on them for the resulting fish kills. Now days the the stuff in the filters gets harvested; fkt ash concrete, asphalt additivesn and etc.
The stack filters aka scrubbers were not mandated until the 70's and the Clean Air Act...
Are you sure? I heard that coal industry executives were jumping off bridges because the US wouldn't allow them to install scrubbers.
Thats pretty snarky, even for you...
Platinum + Palladium Bitchez
Trying to teach chemistry to a gold bug is as hard as teaching cryptos to a Mother-in-Law.
Strong silent type I see...
Must have posted from China. Maybe when the smoke clears there will be something there.
Lucky they extended that air identification zone, looks like it was just in time, can't see the aircraft once you get 'visual' with the mainland. ... (psst, it's really the NSA's 'Cloud').
How can you trust air you can't even see?
As long as the Wal*Mart stores are restocked, who gives a shit?
China's getting pretty good and creating "growth". The sick and dying people in China could add 5% to there GDP, GET SICKER!
It's 'The Mist' attack from Japan
I can see why China is building all those "ghost cities" out in the middle of nowhere. They are going to have to limit the populations of cities to cope with pollution. Mass relocation of citizens is next on the list.
This is not pollution out of control - this is a satellite recognizance barrier.
It's just fog machine for the new years laser show