Face masks are selling out online as China’s cities this week choked on pollution so bad one local scientist called it “somewhat similar to a nuclear winter.” A local cancer prevention official said this revolting blanket of air, largely caused by a “black triangle” of coal pollution, could pose a bigger public health risk than the 2003 SARS epidemic. At rates of over 20 times what the World Health Organization says are acceptable, the air has forced Beijing to shutter city factories, and residents have taken to social media to vent their anger using a now-well-known brand of dark humor. One of the funniest tweets reported by the South China Morning Post recalls a saying by current president Xi Jinping: “Make socialist core values as pervasive as the air.” Chinese netizens: “Also as toxic?”
The official local scale of “PM2.5″—those tiny, toxic particles that can prove so dangerous to health—came in at 501 micrograms per cubic meter on Wednesday. The measurements taken from the US Embassy (and popularized via its Twitter feed) were higher, at 542: “beyond index.” (The US EPA says anything above 300 is hazardous). Another measure of how bad it is: Radio Free Asia reported this week that a resident of the coal-burning city of Shijiazhuang, in a rare act of defiance, is suing the local government for failing to act over the deadly smog.
Comparing the frigid weather hampering the US to Beijing’s endemic smog, Paul Flynn, tech director at PR firm Edelman in Beijing (and a friend), texted me: “After a week of Beijing pollution levels over 500, give me a clear arctic breeze any day.” But if fleeing is not an option, why not dance? I loved watching this homage to Pharrell’s infectious hit, “Happy,” performed by brave locals and expats at some of Beijing’s most recognizable tourist locations. The video, by filmmakers Stephy Chung, Em Jaay, and Sarah E Weber, hit the web this week, and has been already featured on a bunch of very cool China blogs that you should definitely keep tabs on. Enjoy!
H/t to Paul Flynn for pointing the video out.
