Reduce Air Pollution

Air pollution is a severe problem – one that we ignore at the risk of our health and our economy.

Lung cancer is now the most common cancer in China, and heart disease is the country's second-biggest cause of death. Smog hangs heavy over Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where children grow up with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Every year, Hong Kong loses over HK$2 billion due to health costs and lost productivity.

These problems all go back to air pollution, whose consequences are long-term, sometimes fatal and almost always borne by the public.

Much of the time, air pollution is invisible, but its effects are not. Millions of people in China and Hong Kong are breathing dirty air – with terrible health consequences, from respiratory disease to strokes, lung cancer, and heart disease.

China's economy has skyrocketed, but at a price. Power plants, factories and heavy industries are all belching out black, dirty air, at the cost of our health and our environment. According to the World Health Organization, in China more than 650,000 people die each year from diseases related to air pollution.

Greenpeace is one of the leading NGOs working on campaigns to reduce sources of air pollution in China and Hong Kong.


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The latest updates

 

Good, bad and the ugly: Eastern Chinese cities ranked by air quality

Blog entry by Monica Tan | 2012-05-25

It's no news that China's air pollution is bad. In fact if this NASA map of PM2.5 levels is anything to go by, Eastern China has it the worst in the entire world. But how come the air pollution in some Chinese cities is simply bad... Read more >

New air pollution standards pressures local Chinese governments to act

Blog entry by Zhou Rong | 2012-03-06

Last Friday the state council had a press conference , introducing the revised Ambient Air Quality Standard, as part of efforts to strengthen overall  air pollution control. The challenge to clean up the air is huge and urgent. Read more >

China's top dog Premier Wen Jiabao agrees to regional control of country's air pollution

Blog entry by Zhou Rong | 2012-03-01

Premier Wen Jiabao has agreed to release a revised Environmental Air Quality Standard in a State Council meeting yesterday, as part of efforts to strengthen overall air pollution control. The release of this new standard sends a... Read more >

The three types of masks that protect you from air pollution PM2.5

Blog entry by Monica Tan | 2011-12-06

Air pollution in Beijing recently has been absolutely shocking, as the above photo can attest. At too many points in the day levels have been exceeding the testing limits of the US Embassy readings (as seen at their Twitter ). When... Read more >

Meet Beijing's 12-year-old air pollution inspector

Feature Story | 2011-11-07 at 14:18

A recent news report on CCTV covered China's PM2.5 air pollution debate, featuring our climate and energy campaigner Zhou Rong, as well as a very cute 12-year-old volunteer air inspector in Beijing. Read more >

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