The state of California is now using "Smog Checkpoints" to determine whether drivers are complying with state laws regulating carbon emissions, which raises serious concerns among privacy advocates.
The post WATCH: Cops Running ‘Smog Checkpoints’, Stopping Motorists to Check Their Emissions appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
The state of California is now using "Smog Checkpoints" to determine whether drivers are complying with state laws regulating carbon emissions, which raises serious concerns among privacy advocates.
The post WATCH: Cops Running ‘Smog Checkpoints’, Stopping Motorists to Check Their Emissions appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Residents of the heavily populated city of New Delhi, India have had to tie scarves across their faces in an effort to breathe more easily. The heavy smog in the city is entering day three, and a state of emergency could soon be declared to protect the health of the people who reside there.
Air quality readings in India’s capital have soared since Tuesday, with one monitor showing levels in the city were 969. To put that in perspective, the World Health Organization considers anything above 25 to be unsafe. Those levels are based on the concentration of fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, per cubic meter. The microscopic particles, which are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, are considered particularly harmful because they are small enough to lodge deep into the lungs and pass into other organs, causing serious health risks.
The wider Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) is a sprawling area that encompasses Delhi, as well as satellite districts in the neighboring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, and is home to some 46 million people The area lacks effective public transportation and workers must drive their own cars to and from jobs in the city, which CNN says further exacerbates the problem.
According to CNN, The Delhi government is being urged to declare a city-wide health emergency, as residents endured a third straight day of heavy pollution. But apparently, this happens every year, according to one Twitter user, who blames the smog on crop burning.
Delhi has become a gas chamber. Every year this happens during this part of year. We have to find a soln to crop burning in adjoining states
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 7, 2017
Every year, farmers across fertile neighboring states set fire to their fields to clear them for the next season. Known as stubble burning, millions of tons of crop residue are set alight releasing untold amounts of particulate matter into the environment.
Politicians and government officials are also blaming farmers in neighboring northern Indian states who clear their fields by burning their crops. The landlocked capital sits in a natural bowl and is surrounded by industrial and agricultural hubs. Without the coastal breeze of cities such as Mumbai and Chennai, much of the pollution settles.
But crop burning is not the only problem India faces with regards to their pollution problem. Delhi’s pollution also comes from industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust from cars, road dust, and the burning of biomass, said Santosh Harish, assistant director of research at EPIC India, a research institute based in the US and India.
Should New Delhi fail to reign in their pollution, the health of 46 million is on the line.
(ANTIMEDIA) Nanjing, China — With much of the developed world looking to China to take the lead on the highly controversial issue of climate change, it was reported this week that the global power will construct two ‘vertical forest’ towers in the major city of Nanjing in an effort to combat greenhouse gas emissions.
The towers, to be completed by 2018, will be the first of their kind in Asia and will be constructed under the guidance of Stefano Boeri, the architect behind similar forest skyscrapers in Italy and Switzerland.
On his website, Boeri describes the concept behind vertical forests:
“Vertical Forest is a model for sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding upon the territory.”
Combined, the two structures — the outer facades of which will be studded from top to bottom with thousands of trees, plants, and shrubberies — are predicted to produce around 60 kg of oxygen per day and absorb about 25 tons of CO2 a year.
Reporting on the news, the Daily Mail described the amenities the project will provide:
“The taller tower, 600 feet high, crowned on the top by a green lantern, will host offices — from the 8th floor to the 35th — and it will include a museum, a green architecture school and a private club on the rooftop.
“The second tower, 355 feet high, will provide a Hyatt hotel with 247 rooms and a swimming pool on the rooftop.”
Boeri hopes the Nanjing project will lead to others in China, including a luxury hotel in Guizhou, which will be set among 400 acres of rolling hills and will feature a bar, gym, lounge, VIP area, conference room and restaurant.
China — a nation well-known for its pollution problems — is, of late, being looked to for leadership on the climate change issue. Newly-elected President Donald Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a hoax, has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, a United Nations pact signed by nearly 200 countries that aims to tackle environmental concerns such as greenhouse gasses.
Whether or not China will step into this role is yet to be determined, but some analysts believe China’s president, Xi Jinping has recently expressed a willingness. “There is only one Earth in the universe and we mankind have only one homeland,” he said while speaking before a United Nations assembly in Geneva. The leader added:
“The Paris agreement is a milestone in the history of climate governance. We must ensure this endeavor is not derailed.”
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Beijing"s pollution problem is getting worse by the day.
On Wednesday, the Chinese capital issued its highest "red fog alert" for only the second day in history, keeping highways closed in and around the city which is already under a smog alert after weeks of choking winter pollution. China"s weather bureau warned of visibility of less than 50 meters in some areas, leading many airports to cancel flights.
The heavily polluted Hebei province, which surrounds most of Beijing, said on Tuesday it had ordered all polluting firms in Tangshan, China"s biggest steel-producing city to the east of Beijing, to shut down which likely means that China is in for a substantial "manufacturing" shock in the coming months.
Hebei, which was home to seven of China"s 10 smoggiest cities in 2015, will build the world"s biggest dust prevention barrier, stretching nearly two miles, at the major coal port of Qinhuangdao in a bid to cut pollution, state media said on Wednesday.
For now, however, China is very much defenseless against the toxic byproduct of its rapid industrialization, which also happens to be a major factor permitting the Chinese economy to grow at the goalseeked 6-7% level or somewhere thereabouts. Unfortunately for Beijing, it"s a choice of either stable manufacturing growth or clean air: the two are mutually exclusive.
And nowhere was that more visible today, so to speak, than near the port of Tianjin, where according to the Beijing Evening News, a large cruise ship with more than 2,000 people on board was stuck at sea for two days because it was unable to dock in the heavy smog that has enveloped much of northern China. The vessel finally returned to the Port of Tianjin on Monday afternoon after drifting for two days at sea. The thick air pollution had earlier made it impossible to safely berth the vessel, according to the article
A passenger was quoted as saying that the ship was scheduled to return on New Year’s Eve after traveling to South Korea and Japan. But she was told by the crew that the ship could not dock as visibility was severely compromised by the smog. She said the passengers had been unsure how long they would be stuck at sea but were grateful there was plenty of entertainment on board to kill time.
“Unlike passengers who are stuck at some public facilities like an airport, we got to use the pool and the gym to keep ourselves busy,” she said.
As Reuters adds, poor visibility prompted three major northern ports to suspend the loading of ships on Tuesday, maritime safety agencies said.
Unless Beijing"s leadership is willing to take draconian measures to curb smog production, which inevitably means an economic slowdown, expect scenes such as the ones shown below to continue.
It"s started snowing in Beijing. What do you call smoggy snow? Smow? Snog? pic.twitter.com/BKWGYufidu
— Chris Buckley ??? (@ChuBailiang) January 5, 2017
Beijing out my window - the air has taste and texture today. pic.twitter.com/QoZWH20f4E
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 5, 2017
Beijing from the air as smog blankets the city. Just otherworldly - and alarming pic.twitter.com/P8oTLRFomR
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 4, 2017
The following dramatic time-lapse video, shows a wall of toxic smog rolling into Beijing over a 20-minute period collapsed into a 10 second video; it gives a glimpse of the pollution problem in China"s capital city. Chas Pope, a British engineering consultant working in Beijing, shot the video.
An air-quality index released by China"s municipal environmental protection bureau, which measures potentially hazardous particles in the air, hit 482 on Sunday, almost touching the 500 mark where the scale tops out, and far beyond the point deemed hazardous to health, according to the South China Morning Post.
"Everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors," a warning accompanying the reading warns. "People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should remain indoors and keep activity levels low."
As a result of the heavy smog to hit much of northern China on Sunday, hundreds of flights were canceled and highways shut, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday. The latest smog incident to hit Beijing, and which forced local authorities to extend an "orange alert" - the second highest level for air pollution until Jan. 4 - followed a similar hazardous smog alert in mid-December, leading authorities to order hundreds of factories to close and to restrict motorists to cut emissions.
The latest bout of air pollution began on Friday and is expected to persist until Thursday, although it will ease slightly on Monday, the last day of the New Year holiday according to ABC.
In Beijing, 126 flights were canceled at the city"s main airport and all buses from there to neighboring cities suspended, state news agency Xinhua said.
Average concentrations of small breathable particles known as PM2.5 were higher than 500 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing - 50 times higher than World Health Organization recommendations.
In Tianjin, Beijing"s next door metropolis, the smog was not as serious but visibility much worse, with more than 300 flights canceled at Tianjin airport and conditions not expected to improve in the near term, the city government said. Xinhua said highways into and out of the city were also closed.
In Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province that surrounds most of Beijing, about two dozen flights were canceled and eight flights diverted to other airports because of the smog, the People"s Daily said on its website.
A total of 24 Chinese cities have issued red alerts for the current round of pollution, which mandate measures like limiting car usage and closing factories, while 21 have issued orange alerts, including Beijing and Tianjin.
As Reuters notes, Pollution alerts are common in northern China, especially during winter when energy demand, much of it met by coal, soars. The country"s northern provinces mostly rely on the burning of hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal each year for heating during northern China"s bitterly cold winters.
China began a "war on pollution" in 2014 amid concerns its heavy industrial past was tarnishing its global reputation and holding back its future development, but it has struggled to effectively tackle the problem.
Unfortunately for China"s residents, the "war" is lost every time Chinese production goes into overdrive, forcing the government to order manufacturing to halt output, leading to an economic slowdown, and forcing a sharp restart several weeks to months later, usually as a result of more trillions in credit injections, which then send the credit impulse propagating around the globe.
In other words, the global economy is now held hostage by the level of toxic particullate matter in northern China: any time this goes off the chart, manufacturing in China is halted, leading to significant downstream effects around the entire world.
