China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists / The Guardian. Muita poluição? Processe o Governo / PÚBLICO

China's worsening air pollution has exacted a significant economic toll, grounding flights, closing highways and deterring tourists. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

Air pollution now impeding photosynthesis and potentially wreaking havoc on country's food supply, experts warn

Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing

theguardian.com, Tuesday 25 February 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/china-toxic-air-pollution-nuclear-winter-scientists

Chinese scientists have warned that the country's toxic air pollution is now so bad that it resembles a nuclear winter, slowing photosynthesis in plants – and potentially wreaking havoc on the country's food supply.

Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing's concentration of PM 2.5 particles – those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream – hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25.

 

Buildings in the central business district in Guangzhou seen through the thick haze. Photograph: Alex Lee/Reuters

The worsening air pollution has already exacted a significant economic toll, grounding flights, closing highways and keeping tourists at home. On Monday 11,200 people visited Beijing's Forbidden City, about a quarter of the site's average daily draw.

He Dongxian, an associate professor at China Agricultural University's College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, said new research suggested that if the smog persists, Chinese agriculture will suffer conditions "somewhat similar to a nuclear winter".

She has demonstrated that air pollutants adhere to greenhouse surfaces, cutting the amount of light inside by about 50% and severely impeding photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into life-sustaining chemical energy.

She tested the hypothesis by growing one group of chilli and tomato seeds under artificial lab light, and another under a suburban Beijing greenhouse. In the lab, the seeds sprouted in 20 days; in the greenhouse, they took more than two months. "They will be lucky to live at all," He told the South China Morning Post newspaper.

 

A farmer turns soil to plant crops near a state-owned lead smelter in Tianying that has made much of the land uninhabitable. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters/Corbis

She warned that if smoggy conditions persist, the country's agricultural production could be seriously affected. "Now almost every farm is caught in a smog panic," she said.

Early this month the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences claimed in a report that Beijing's pollution made the city almost "uninhabitable for human beings".

The Chinese government has repeatedly promised to address the problem, but enforcement remains patchy. In October, Beijing introduced a system of emergency measures if pollution levels remained hazardous for three days in a row, including closing schools, shutting some factories, and restricting the use of government cars.

According to China's state newswire Xinhua, 147 industrial companies in Beijing have cut or suspended production. Yet schools remained open and government cars remained on the road.

 

People visiting the Olympic Park amid the thick haze in Beijing. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

One person not put off by the smog was President Xi Jinping, who braved the pollution to make an unannounced visit to a trendy neighbourhood popular with tourists.

Dressed in a black jacket and trousers – and no facemask – Xi made a brief walkabout in Nanluoguxiang district last Thursday morning. The visit prompted approving coverage in Chinese news reports, but also mockery on social media sites. "Xi Jinping visits Beijing's Nanluoguxiang amid the smog: breathing together, sharing the fate," said a Xinhua headline.

Photos and shaky video footage apparently of Xi's visit ricocheted around Chinese social media sites. "Why isn't he wearing a facemask?" asked one Sina Weibo user. "Isn't it bad for his health?"

This week Chinese media reported that a man in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province near Beijing, had sued the local environmental protection bureau for failing to rein in the smog. Li Guixin filed the lawsuit asking the municipal environment protection bureau "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law", the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported.

Li is also seeking compensation for the pollution. "Besides the threat to our health, we've also suffered economic losses, and these losses should be borne by the government and the environmental departments because the government is the recipient of corporate taxes, it is a beneficiary," he told the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily.

 

Diseased vegetables said to be caused by pollution from a chemical plant. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA

Li's lawyer, Wu Yufen, confirmed the lawsuit but refused to comment because of the sensitivity of the case. He said: "This is the first ever case of a citizen suing the government regarding the issue of air pollution. We're waiting for the judicial authority's response."

Li told the newspaper that he had bought an air purifier, masks and a treadmill, but none had helped him to overcome the pernicious health effects of the smog. He is seeking RMB 10,000 (£1,000) in compensation. "I want show every citizen that we are real victims of this polluted air, which hurts us both from a health perspective and economically," he said.

Li Yan, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace East Asia, said the case could bring exposure to polluted cities outside of Beijing, putting pressure on provincial officials to prioritise the problem. She said: "People … who live in Beijing are suffering from the polluted air, but we have the attention of both domestic and international media. Shijiazhuang's environmental problems are far more serious, and this case could bring Shijiazhuang the attention it has deserved for a long time."

Muita poluição? Processe o Governo

REUTERS 25/02/2014 - 09:52 / PÚBLICO

Pela primeira vez, um cidadão chinês está a processar o Estado devido à elevada poluição. Residentes estão revoltados e alarmados com a situação nas zonas industriais do Centro e Norte da China.

Pela primeira vez na China, um cidadão decidiu processar o Governo por considerar que este não está a fazer o que devia para reduzir a poluição do ar. O queixoso chama-se Li Guixin, vive em Shjiazhuang, capital da província de Hebei, e apresentou a queixa num tribunal distrital, exigindo que o Gabinete Municipal de Protecção do Ambiente da sua cidade “cumpra o dever de controlar a poluição do ar, de acordo com a lei”. A notícia foi publicada no jornal estatal Yanzhao Metropolis Daily.

Li Guixin também está a exigir uma indemnização desta agência ambiental para os residentes que todos os dias respiram o ar poluído que cobriu Shjiazhuang, e uma grande parte do Norte da China, neste Inverno. “A razão por que proponho uma indemnização administrativa é para mostrar a todos os cidadãos que somos nós as verdadeiras vítimas”, disse Li a este jornal, que acrescenta que não é certo que o tribunal aceite dar seguimento ao processo. O advogado de Li, Wu Yufen, preferiu não comentar essa possibilidade dizendo ser essa “uma informação bastante sensível”. O tribunal e o Gabinete Municipal de Protecção Ambiental de Shjiazhuang não puderam ser contactados para comentar.

Li argumenta que gastou dinheiro em máscaras faciais e um purificador do ar em Dezembro, quando a poluição atingiu níveis particularmente elevados. “Além da ameaça para a nossa saúde, sofremos também perdas económicas, e essas perdas deviam ser suportadas pelo Governo e  departamentos governamentais. O Governo recebe os impostos pagos pelas empresas. É pois um beneficiário”, acrescentou.

O Norte da China sofreu, nos últimos dias, uma das suas piores crises de poluição do ar dos últimos meses. As autoridades introduziram várias regras e políticas e fizeram várias promessas de que iriam tratar o ar, mas o problema continua a agravar-se.

O Governo investiu em projectos e deu poder aos tribunais para impôr multas mais severas mas as mesmas nem sempre são cobradas ao nível local, onde as autoridades muitas vezes dependem das taxas pagas pelas indústrias poluentes. O Centro Nacional de Meteorologia elevou o seu nível de alerta de poluição para o Centro e o Norte do país, onde se espera um denso nevoeiro para os próximos dois dias, refere a agência estatal de notícias Xinhua. 

Pequim está, há mais de uma semana, coberta por um manto de poluição. Para tentar reduzir esses elevados níveis, 147 empresas industriais da capital reduziram ou suspenderam, até esta terça-feira, a sua produção, noticiou a Xinhua. Além disso, os residentes estão cada vez mais revoltados e alarmados. “É claro que nos dias em que os níveis de poluição atingem ou ultrapassam a escala ficamos muito preocupados. Temos de ver isto como uma situação de crise”, disse à Reuters o representante da Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) na China, Bernhard Schwartlander. “Existem agora provas claras de que, no longo prazo, elevados níveis de poluição podem provocar cancro do pulmão.”

As cidades mais poluídas da China estão em Hebei, a importante região industrial que circunda Pequim. Aqui, a cidade de Shijiazhuang atingiu, várias vezes no início de 2013, níveis que ultrapassaram a escala dos índices. A Academia de Ciências da China identifica esta província como sendo a fonte principal do nevoeiro nocivo que cobriu Pequim no último ano. E o Governo prometeu, no quadro de um plano de acção para a província de Hebei, travar novos projectos em certas indústrias. Ao nível provincial, foi também prometido reduzir em 40% (relativamente ao ano passado) a capacidade de produzir cimento até 2020. Dados oficiais comprovam que isso começa a acontecer.