Crowded Cities Are Being Affected By The High Smog Levels

Beijing Residents Choke In Record Breaking Smog Levels
By: Steven Jiang and Faith Karimi
Published: Sunday January 13th 2013 (China Time)

 http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/13/world/asia/china-smog-blanket/index.html?iref=allsearch

Crowded Cities Are Being Affected By The High Smog Levels:
By: Ben Kron

The skyline of Beijing is no longer visible due to the overwhelming amount of smog that surrounds the city. The residents of Beijing are starting to wear air masks around the city to protect them from the air pollution. We learned in our class that anything past the level of 500 on the AQI scale is considered hazardous to human life. The data in China shows that on Sunday the AQI exceeded 500 and maybe even over that extreme number. A Beijing resident states, "As the number soared, the streets got emptier. The sun, peeking shyly behind the hazy blanket, was barely visible." People living there knew something was wrong and the air seemed barley breathable. Reports of respiratory problems soared the next day as people would check into the hospitable. The U.S. embassy in Beijing recorded an index over 700 but the numbers decreased by Sunday. The people of Beijing say the air quality is worsening but government officials state it is improving since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The air quality has gotten so bad that some flights were cancelled do to the poor viability surrounding the airport. Scientists compare Beijing to Los Angeles but sometimes a little worse. The reason of why these cities have so much air pollution is do to the high population. The more people you have the more amount of pollution is produced due to each person producing their own input. They go on to talk about how L.A. has started it's famous smog output since the late 1950's. 20 years later people began to notice the tremendous difference in the amount smog surrounding L.A. The Chinese officials advised the city's people to stay indoors for the day.

Opinion/ Reflection:
My opinion on this matter is that people should start to learn how to clean their air. Almost everyday in Beijing people are being diagnosed with some form of lung disease due to the terrible air. Beijing is an industrial city, so that is one reason of why there is so much smog surrounding the city. As we learned in class the highest color humans can tolerate orange. The city of Beijing was reaching a color of Maroon which is listed as hazardous to human health. The U.S. embassy officials said they recorded an AQI of 700! that is 200 over the highest on the scale! I'm surprised many more people did not die. I was also surprised it related to our own city of L.A. That means we also have a big problem with our smog conditions. Those are my thoughts on the subject of air pollution in cities. I do think we should do something about it.

Questions:
1. What do you think we should do about the increasing smog output?

2. Do you think if someone in Beijing develops a lung condition due to the city's smog, the government should pay for their treatment?

3. What laws should be passed limiting the pollution outputs in big cities?

4. Do you believe the more people you have in a city, the more pollution there is?

5. Do you think Beijing gets allot of acid rain/ other variables of a great amount of pollution?

6. Do you think people living in these high pollution cities should relocate due to the hazards?