Attacked by activists and lambasted by locals, Beijing’s government this week declared its first red alert on atmospheric pollution. The air in the Chinese capital is less filled by noxious fumes and dust than last week but the city finally responded to discontent and anger among its 20m citizens by shutting schools, closing factories and construction sites, and making car owners drive on alternate days.
Beijing’s air at the end of November reached 40 times the World Health Organisation’s safe limit for tiny particles of dust and soot that can penetrate human lungs. China’s cities are rivalled in foul air by India’s. An alternate-day ban on cars is planned for New Delhi in January after 13 Indian cities were ranked by the WHO in the top 20 most choked metropolises in the world.
The blankets of smog that regularly cover cities in China and India are a product of both industrialisation and urbanisation. Their economies and cities have grown so fast that they cannot cope. Fogs filled with nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, mineral dust and black carbon are asphyxiating citizens, contributing to cancer, lung disease and the premature deaths of millions. But smog is also a symptom of maladministration and corruption — a lack of will to limit polluting factories, diesel vehicles and coal-fired power plants because politicians and officials are too docile and biddable. There are alternatives, from natural gas power plants to electric vehicles, but these cities stink of vested interests.