This is significant. It is the one target that challenges authority
indirectly and every reporter can sink his teeth into real reporting
and obvious outrage when he does. It is an avenue for a free media
to hone their talents and outright emerge.
The need for open debate and disclosure is clear to anyone but the
focus has been diffuse. This can focus the natural outrage.
Morally the leadership is unable to stand up against this movement.
China pollution
anger spills into state media
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 14, 2013
Public anger in China
at dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in
acrid smog, spread Monday as state media queried official
transparency and the nation's breakneck development.
The media joined
Internet users in calling for a re-evaluation of China's
modernisation process, which has seen rapid urbanisation and dramatic
economic development at the expense of the environment.
Dense smog shrouded
large swathes of northern China at the weekend, cutting visibility to
100 metres (yards) in some areas and forcing flight cancellations.
Reports said dozens of building sites and a car factory in the
capital halted work as an anti-pollution measure.
Doctors at two of the
city's major hospitals said the number of patients with respiratory
problems had increased sharply in the past few days, state media
reported.
"Now it has been
dark with pollution for three days, at least people are starting to
realise how important the environment is," said one posting on
China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
At the height of the
smog Beijing authorities said readings for PM2.5 -- particles small
enough deeply to penetrate the lungs -- hit 993 micrograms per cubic
metre, almost 40 times the World Health Organisation's safe limit.
Experts quoted by
state media blamed low winds, saying fog had mixed with pollutants
from vehicles and factories and had been trapped by mountains north
and west of Beijing. Coal burning in winter was also a factor, they
added.
In an editorial Monday
the state-run Global Times called for more transparent figures on
pollution and urged the government to change its "previous
method of covering up the problems and instead publish the facts".
Officials in China
have a long history of covering up environmental and other problems.
Earlier this month a
chemical spill into a river was only publicly disclosed five days
after it happened, and authorities were widely criticised for
initially denying the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
outbreak in 2003.
Official PM2.5
statistics have only been released for China's biggest conurbations
since the beginning of last year, and expanded to cover 74 cities
earlier this month.
The tightly-controlled
media has previously raised concerns over health problems linked to
industrialisation. Observers say the statistics' increasing
availability has forced them to confront the issue more directly.
The Xinhua state news
agency criticised the "pollutant belt" that had spread
across the country and warned that the authorities' stated goal of
building a "beautiful China" was in jeopardy.
"A country with a
brown sky and hazardous air is obviously not beautiful," it
said.
"The
environmental situation facing the country will be increasingly
challenging," it said. "There is no reason to be too
optimistic."
On Monday the Ministry
of Environmental Protection announced measures to tackle the problem.
It pledged to limit
vehicle exhaust emissions and promote the use of clean energy as well
as step up the development of public transport systems in urban
areas, state news agency Xinhua said.
The environmental
watchdog also asked local authorities to increase their analysis of
air pollution and publicise the results quickly as part of an early
warning system for air quality, Xinhua reported.
Smog levels eased in
the capital Monday, with the national monitoring centre putting the
PM2.5 AQI figure at 183, or "light pollution", in the
evening -- although the US embassy gave it a "hazardous"
335.
Levels remained high
in many parts of China, with PM 2.5 AQI standing at 405 in Zhengzhou
south of Beijing and 342 in Xian to the southwest.
Share prices of
environment-related companies surged, with face mask producer
Shanghai Dragon soaring by its 10 percent daily limit.
The smog dominated
discussion on Sina Weibo. "This pollution is making me so
angry," said one user, posting a picture of herself wearing a
face mask.
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