Beijing’s apocalyptic landscape: awakened in a brown haze of pollution and lashed by a sandstorm

China’s capital and much of the country’s north were involved in the worst sandstorm in a decade on Monday, which forced hundreds of flights to be canceled on Monday.

The skyscrapers of downtown Beijing seemed to have disappeared from view in the dust and sand. Traffic was severely affected and more than 400 flights scheduled to leave the capital’s two main airports were canceled before dawn.

This kind of storm is common in the spring, when the sand of the western deserts is blown eastward by the wind, affecting places as far away as northern Japan.

Massive planting of trees and shrubs in vulnerable areas reduced the intensity of the storms, but the expansion of cities and industries put constant pressure on the environment across China.

The National Meteorological Center estimated that sand and dust would affect 12 provinces and regions, from Xinjiang in the far northwest to Heilongjiang., in the northeast, as well as in the eastern coastal city of Tianjin.

“It is the most intense sandstorm our country has seen in 10 years, and the one that covers the largest area,” the center said on its website.

It is not known whether the storm was linked to an overall drop in air quality despite efforts to tackle pollution and smoke in Beijing.

The Communist Party government has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of economic output by 18% over the next five years.. Environmentalists say China needs to do more to reduce its dependence on coal, which has made the country the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Authorities have demanded that the elderly, children and people with respiratory illnesses not leave their homes during the day.

The concentration of PM10 particles – for example, dust or ash – in the air reached, after 11:00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT), nearly 5,800 micrograms per cubic meter.

At that time, the concentration of PM2.5 particles – the most harmful to health – in the air was 386 micrograms per cubic meter, well above the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) , 25%. 24 hour period.

That brought the air quality index to 424 points on average in the city at that time.. The higher this reading, the worse the atmospheric conditions.

However, by early morning, this indicator had exceeded 2,000 points in some areas of the city.

At certain points of the Chinese capital visibility reaches as low as 300 meters.

With information from EFE

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