Beijing must change its way of measuring pollution because of pressure

The government in Beijing on January 6 gave in to the country's massive Internet campaign, demanding to change the way air quality is measured in the capital, one of the world's most polluted cities. .

>>>Beijing "heavily polluted", people go online to breathe

The Chinese capital currently calculates air quality based on particles of 10 micrometers or larger, known as PM10, and does not count smaller dust particles, which are said to be the biggest harm to analysts. human health.

But last year, the authorities were under great pressure to change the system, when they ranked air quality in Beijing to be only slightly polluted, despite the dense smoke that forced hundreds of flights. canceled, and people rushed to buy masks.

Local officials have measured dust particles of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, called PM2.5, but the Chinese environment ministry said that the environmental information will not be published until. 2016.

On Friday, Beijing's Environment Department said it would provide hourly updates on the activity of measuring PM2.5 before the Lunar New Year, which began January 23, in response to anger. of public opinion.

"Authorities plan to release air quality monitoring data using PM2.5 before the Lunar New Year , " an official of the bureau, carrying Liang, told AFP.

"The government must consider people's requests, and it is true that the anger of Beijing citizens recently has been a major factor in our actions."

The anger of public opinion has increased due to the inconsistency between official information, information posted online and information posted by the US Embassy in Beijing on Twitter. In particular, Americans had their own PM2.5 dust level measurements and regularly recorded dangerous pollution levels.

Many bloggers praised the US embassy's role in Beijing's change, although some expressed doubts about whether the authorities really intended to be more transparent about the problem of pollution. is not.

"Today's trend is only to deal with problems when they appear , " said a man named Qiong Xiaobing on weibo - China's largest microblogging.

"We don't care about the data or the parameters, because we can't do anything even if the pollution is overtaking , " said another user of the weibo network, named Hebo HB.

"We have lived like this for decades, we only wish the government not to deceive us anymore."

China has the largest online community in the world, with the number of internet users up to half a billion people, creating a growing challenge for authorities.

Beijing authorities said last month that they had achieved "blue sky" dates for 2011, with 274 " air quality of type 1 or 2" compared with 252 days in 2010.

But the government's China Daily newspaper said that if PM2.5 is used as the main benchmark in China, only 20% of the cities in the country will be ranked as satisfactory air quality, compared to 80. % The current.

Beijing authorities have pledged to set up 500 bicycle rental points along the city during the year and will bring people to hire 20,000 bicycles to ease traffic congestion. People also consider opening new bike lanes, according to Xinhua.

The capital will also open 4 more subway lines in 2012, bringing the total to 19 routes.

According to AFP , international organizations have listed Beijing as one of the world's most polluted cities, mainly due to increasing electricity consumption, with most of the plants still operating on coal.

The consumption of coal has doubled in the past decade and the boom in car sales that has led China to become the world's largest car mayor has had a negative impact on efforts to control. control environmental pollution in recent years.

Wang Qiuxia, a pollution expert working at China's GreenBeagle Group, said the new measures would increase awareness of the risk of pollution, but warned that cleaning up the Beijing atmosphere would be progressive. process lasts.

"According to some reviews, it will take 20 years before we see the improvement in air quality in Beijing, in case the appropriate measures are used , " Wang said.