Airpocalypse hits Beijing... and breaks devastating new record

Usually it’s only locals that have to suffer through Beijing’s notorious air pollution. But as records in air quality are smashed, celebrities and sport stars in town this week are forced to power through as well. Mariah Carey, top cyclists and football star Lionel Messi will get a taste today of Airpocalypse – episodes of extreme air pollution.

For the first time this year, air quality reached “hazardous levels”, or or 215 times “safe” levels, for over 50 hours. This is the longest Beijingers have been forced to breathe this sort of air this year.

Parents, children, students and even visiting football star, Lionel Messi who is in Beijing for a football match this year, have been going about their daily business in air so noxious and thick with pollutants that visibility is down to 500 metres.

Satellite images show that a thick wave of pollution has come from areas south to Beijing, including the southern part of Hebei Province where iron and steel mills and other heavy industries are concentrated. It’s no surprise that the haze is man made, but weather conditions are exacerbating the problem.

NASA satellite image showing the haze direction in and around Beijing in northeast China

The World Health Organization set a limit for PM2.5 of 25 micrograms per cubic meter within a 24-hour period of time. In the last 50 hours, it’s been above 250 micrograms per cubic meter.

Blue skies now!

In the early hours of this morning, the Greenpeace “Haze Squad” projected a plea onto one of the city’s most iconic building – the Drum Tower.