Back in 2014 pollution was one of ten top reason's to leave China. Our choice was to stay despite many befriended families moving out. 2016 was a year with year with outstanding AQI values and I repeated myself many times saying that this is the best year we had in Shanghai since our arrival in 2009. But as every year the regional weather conditions are worst from November to February and our expectations were not disappointed this year. Since a few days Shanghai citizens suffer from PM 2.5 values far beyond 150 µg.
The cheap home solution for air pollution is a DIY kit from smart air for only a few hundred CNY instead of many thousand CNY for high end machines. Check out the comparative testing, if you are not convinced, and get a kit for your own home.
If you want to suffer a bit more, read what I wrote on air pollution in 2014 or watch Chai Jing's 2013 documentary [OMG, it has been 3 years since then!] Under the Dome now:
What’s more to say about this issue after Beijing’s air pollution index went viral in January topping PM 2.5 900µg and Shanghai’s in December 2013 topping 600µg? Frankly speaking, I have never cared about air pollution. Expats fidgeting on their smart phones and constantly discussing the PM rating, were people I tended to avoid. Since last December I have joined the crowd. We still don’t wear face masks, but I watch the US consulate rating and decide then if outdoor activities are advisable for our family.
16 of the world’s most polluted cities are said to be located in China. A rough, gut-felt estimate on the sources of air pollution: 1/3 traffic, 1/3 industry, 1/3 building operation. But all air pollution is rooted in China’s deadly energy mix with more than 60% based on thermal power plants which burn domestic and imported coal … leaving China’s residents with healthy carbon dioxide which prompts the cousin of one of my colleagues to buy him a WWII gas mask “you can stay where you are, you will survive everything with that”. Though even if air pollution is most visible – in such occasions as sending my daughter off to kindergarten and running into a befriended mother of ours with her two kids hand in hand, one left, one right, all three of them covered with facial masks – even if air pollution is most visible, it is only the tip of a dirty ice berg: water and soil pollution are much worse, have a direct impact on the nutrition cycle and will take much longer to clean up.
The cheap home solution for air pollution is a DIY kit from smart air for only a few hundred CNY instead of many thousand CNY for high end machines. Check out the comparative testing, if you are not convinced, and get a kit for your own home.
If you want to suffer a bit more, read what I wrote on air pollution in 2014 or watch Chai Jing's 2013 documentary [OMG, it has been 3 years since then!] Under the Dome now:
What’s more to say about this issue after Beijing’s air pollution index went viral in January topping PM 2.5 900µg and Shanghai’s in December 2013 topping 600µg? Frankly speaking, I have never cared about air pollution. Expats fidgeting on their smart phones and constantly discussing the PM rating, were people I tended to avoid. Since last December I have joined the crowd. We still don’t wear face masks, but I watch the US consulate rating and decide then if outdoor activities are advisable for our family.
16 of the world’s most polluted cities are said to be located in China. A rough, gut-felt estimate on the sources of air pollution: 1/3 traffic, 1/3 industry, 1/3 building operation. But all air pollution is rooted in China’s deadly energy mix with more than 60% based on thermal power plants which burn domestic and imported coal … leaving China’s residents with healthy carbon dioxide which prompts the cousin of one of my colleagues to buy him a WWII gas mask “you can stay where you are, you will survive everything with that”. Though even if air pollution is most visible – in such occasions as sending my daughter off to kindergarten and running into a befriended mother of ours with her two kids hand in hand, one left, one right, all three of them covered with facial masks – even if air pollution is most visible, it is only the tip of a dirty ice berg: water and soil pollution are much worse, have a direct impact on the nutrition cycle and will take much longer to clean up.
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