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Residents of the city defended themselves from the suffocating dust and sand particles with goggles, masks and nets, and through the apocalyptic-looking fog, they barely saw the Prohibited Shooting and other famous Beijing objects. Due to extreme air pollution, city authorities have instructed schools not to hold outdoor sports and events, warning people not to go outside whenever possible. Hundreds of flights canceled.
Chinese meteorologists attribute the poor quality of the sand to a sandstorm that has moved from northern Mongolia, where authorities say the disaster claimed the lives of several people. The storm ripped through northern regions of China, then veered south and hit Beijing, where visibility was less than 500 meters.
People in Beijing were concerned about health risks from the storm, which further increased air pollution.
“I feel that any inspiration is going to cause me lung problems,” a resident of the capital told AFP.
It is the largest sandstorm in a decade to hit the capital, hoping to restore a natural barrier to such phenomena through intensive replanting of forests, the so-called “Great Green Wall.”
Last year, Beijing announced that it would expect fewer and weaker sandstorms in northern China due to reforestation.
Findings from a study published in the journal Nature Sustainability in 2019 show that since 2000, an additional 5.2 million have appeared on Earth’s surface. kv. km of vegetation and that a quarter of this area is in China.
However, the opposite of these green belts is exerted by desertification in the northwest of the country.
“Very angry”
Beijing health expert Pan Xiaochuan told AFP that the land has been extremely dry recently due to lack of rainfall, making the sandstorm “very severe.”
“If there is less humidity, more dust is raised,” he said. “Because this sandstorm came from a great height, the fringes of the trees will not be very effective in holding back the wind.”
The sandstorms that hit the capital are caused by extreme weather conditions and desertification, said Li Shuo of the environmental organization Greenpeace China, AFP.
However, according to him, the poor air quality in Beijing in recent weeks has also been caused by “intensive” industrial activity. As the economy recovers again; Steel, cement and aluminum production already exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
The smog sparked an active discussion on the social media platform Weibo. “Because of this orange sandstorm, everything looks like the end of the world,” wrote one consumer.
Pollution in the city is at a dangerous level, according to air quality monitoring site Aqicn. The contamination is so high that the measurement scales of many devices are not sufficient.
Coarse particle concentrations are almost 20 times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Aqicn.
But the state-run Global Times reported that concentrations of coarse particles in six central Beijing districts “exceeded 8,100” on Monday morning. That would be 160 times the recommended limit.
Concentrations of fine solids that can go deep into the lungs and cause lung disease were also dangerously high Monday morning.
In 2015-2019, China dramatically lowered its national average concentration of fine particulate matter, and the government has announced an ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
But Li Shuo warned on Twitter that Beijing was illustrating an “ecological crisis.” “It’s hard to say that we are moving forward when we don’t see what’s in front of you,” he wrote.
