{"id":1025,"date":"2016-12-20T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T23:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/aboutus\/1025\/460-million-people-in-china-are-choking-on-dirty-air\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T22:01:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T06:01:29","slug":"460-million-people-in-china-are-choking-on-dirty-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/1025\/460-million-people-in-china-are-choking-on-dirty-air\/","title":{"rendered":"460 million people in China are choking on dirty air"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-content\"><em>460 million people in China are currently choking under a cloud of smog larger than North America. China needs to speed up its renewables revolution!<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\nNorth China\u2026has looked better.Day 4 of the latest \u2018airpocalypse\u2019 and pollution levels in Hebei and surrounding provinces have soared so far off the charts in some areas that they are double the \u201ccrazy bad\u201d readings that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/blog\/2010\/nov\/19\/crazy-bad-beijing-air-pollution\">scandalized t<\/a>witter in \u00a02010.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" style=\"display: block; margin: 1em 40px !important 1em 40px !important;\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Air pollution levels in one of China\u2019s old steel bastions are double the \u201ccrazy bad\u201d \/ \u201cairpocalypse\u201d level, reaching New Delhi levels <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hF1reZsDxn\">pic.twitter.com\/hF1reZsDxn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lauri Myllyvirta (@laurimyllyvirta) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/laurimyllyvirta\/status\/810773065479110656\">December 19, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><br \/>\nAn area larger than Spain and Portugal, home to over 460 million people \u2013 the equivalent of the population of the US, Canada and Mexico combined- is suffocating under a thick blanket of smog.<\/p>\n<p>Planes have been delayed, hospital visits have spiked and entire cities have been brought to a standstill as the smog rolled in for the most punishing episode of the year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" style=\"display: block; margin: 1em 40px !important 1em 40px !important;\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Northern China\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/smog?src=hash\">#smog<\/a> is affecting 460 million people, equal to the populations of the US, Canada &amp; Mexico combined <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AX5sevEhjT\">https:\/\/t.co\/AX5sevEhjT<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j81HRtBw8G\">pic.twitter.com\/j81HRtBw8G<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEAsia\/status\/811061490027413504\">December 20, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Pollution in one of China\u2019s steel-producing hubs reached record-breaking levels, even as red alert regulations shut and slowed down production in 1200 factories across the region.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, we recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/news\/blog\/red-alert-whats-happening-with-beijings-air-p\/blog\/58325\/\">mined the data <\/a>and found that after almost 2 years of continuous improvement in China\u2019s air quality, progress is starting to slow.<\/p>\n<p><em>Look familiar? Almost exactly one year ago, north China was facing exactly the same situation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>All is not lost\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s hard to remember when the scenes outside your window look like something out of Mad Max, but the situation<em> is<\/em> improving.<\/p>\n<p>China has undergone an incredible energy shift and in just a few short years, established itself as a leading voice in the global climate debate. China\u2019s renewables industry continues to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theclimategroup.org\/what-we-do\/news-and-blogs\/chinas-wind-energy-hit-new-record-in-2015\/http:\/\/www.theclimategroup.org\/what-we-do\/news-and-blogs\/chinas-wind-energy-hit-new-record-in-2015\/\">smash records<\/a>, global emissions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/science\/global-warming-carbon-emissions-stall-us-china-coal-use-drop-reduction-a7416011.html\">are stalling \u00a0<\/a>and we\u2019ve every reason to believe we\u2019ve reached peak coal. Meanwhile, levels of <a href=\"http:\/\/energydesk.greenpeace.org\/2016\/11\/16\/beijing-air-pollution-heavy-metal-coal\/\">heavy metal carcinogens<\/a> in Beijing\u2019s air have plummeted.<\/p>\n<p>But when scenes like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3342448\/That-s-one-way-outline-problem-Landmarks-hidden-China-s-smog-drawn-photographs-highlighting-pollution-problem.html\">this <\/a>are becoming an annual event, it\u2019s clear that the transition needs to pick up speed. China\u2019s economy needs to wrench itself away from coal, deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/article\/show\/single\/en\/9119-How-China-can-stop-wasting-wind-energy\">curtailmen<\/a>t and distribution problems that plague its renewables industries and tackle its<a href=\"http:\/\/energydesk.greenpeace.org\/2016\/07\/13\/china-keeps-building-coal-plants-despite-new-overcapacity-policy\/\"> coal overcapacity<\/a> glut.<\/p>\n<p>In crisis there is opportunity: exposing and sharing the impacts of China\u2019s air pollution has driven the government to take unprecedented action and lead to the biggest energy revolution in modern history.<\/p>\n<p>The renewables revolution is already here: we just need to push it along.<\/p>\n<div class=\"events-box big-box left\">\n<div class=\"frame reset-padding\"><a class=\"open-img EnlargeImage\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/414ab883-414ab883-15203291_10154783220929116_734592703988515550_n-1.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" id=\"ctl00_cphContentArea_epiEntryContent_ctl00_ctl02_Image1\" class=\"Thumbnail\" style=\"border-width: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-eastasia-stateless\/2019\/11\/414ab883-414ab883-15203291_10154783220929116_734592703988515550_n-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"hidden\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>460 million people in China are currently choking under a cloud of smog larger than North America. China needs to speed up its renewables revolution!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22,18],"p4-page-type":[26],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-sustainably","tag-reduce-air-pollution","tag-coal","p4-page-type-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2537,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/2537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}