A thick cloud of smog lay over northern China on Friday. According to meteorologists, visibility was less than 200 meters in places. A poisonous smog cloud lay over the Indian capital New Delhi on Friday. The day before, on the occasion of the Hindu festival of lights Diwali, countless oil lamps and candles were burned and fireworks were set off.
Beijing schools were ordered to suspend physical education classes and outdoor activities. Sections of the motorway were closed in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Harbin due to poor visibility.
According to a measuring station at the US embassy in Beijing, the level of air pollution was “very unhealthy” for the population. The concentration of fine dust of size 2.5 was around 230 and thus far above the limit value of 15 specified by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Official call to refrain from fireworks was ignored
In New Delhi, India, the number exceeded the 400 threshold in the hardest hit areas. The authorities there had called in vain to refrain from igniting fireworks for the Diwali festival. In addition to air pollution from the festival rituals, there was also air pollution from traffic, industry and the burning of fields.
The authorities in Beijing attributed the smog to a combination of “unfavorable weather conditions and regional pollution”. The smog will last at least until Saturday evening.
The “cause of smog in northern China is the burning of fossil fuels,” said the Greenpeace climate expert for East Asia, Danqing Li. China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, is currently being criticized at the world climate summit in Glasgow for its lack of environmental protection measures.
China’s economy is almost 60 percent dependent on climate-damaging coal power. Most recently, the People’s Republic had ramped up its coal production due to energy bottlenecks.