Amidst Heavy Pollution, Beijing Takes to Televising Sunrise

Smog in China's capital city has thickened to dangerous levels, while public concern over environmental health seems to have led China's President Xi Jinping to take action against the dizzying accumulation of pollutants in Beijing and Shanghai. Shanghai is expected to close 500 of its most heavily polluting and hazardous facilities, and Beijing has drafted a plan to implement fines against businesses, construction sites, and residences which exceed emission limits, reports Bloomberg.

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Much of the recent increase in global air pollution has been from the burning of coal in developing countries, China included. Despite the "clean coal" movement in the U.S., coal is the primary contributor to global warming and is also a leading cause of smog, acid rain, and toxic air pollution; there are methods to limit pollution by coal in coal-fired power plants, but they are often neglected due to cost.

The Guardian describes the rise in coal emissions as resulting in part from outsourcing by the U.S. and U.K., citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's recent report on global CO2 emissions and warning that this is not only China's problem.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Beijing and the other 10 provinces warned this week by the China's Meteorological Center of hazardous smog conditions are left peering through the gloom at an LED sunrise, waiting for their leaders to heed the warnings scientists have been giving for the past decade.