Shanghai warned children and the elderly to stay indoors for at least a seventh day out of the first nine this month, intensifying pressure on local authorities to control the worst smog since government monitoring began last year.
The city’s air quality index was at 238, or “heavily polluted” at 5 p.m., according to the local monitoring center. A warning to stay indoors is triggered any time the index exceeds 200. The index surged to a record 482 on Dec. 6 into the “severe” level, the highest of a six-tier rating system, according to the China Daily. That prompted the government to order cars off the road and factories to cut production.
We need to send Joe Biden to talk to China about climate change.
Smog is a serious health issue, unlike carbon dioxide. My husband has visited various cities in China and reports the air is frequently horrible. Unlike the valleys east of Los Angeles, which were frequently awful in the 1960s-1970s, it isn’t getting better in China.