In-depth Report: Beijing's Airpocalypse, Causes, Effects & Solutions

This report analyzes the air pollution crisis in Beijing, often referred to as the 'airpocalypse,' which has rendered the city almost uninhabitable. It highlights the severe impact on daily life, including restricted outdoor activities, health concerns, and the emergence of air-filtration systems in schools. The report discusses the measures taken by the government and innovative solutions proposed by scientists to combat the issue, such as artificial rain, smog vacuum cleaners, and smog-to-diamond conversion. It also references the temporary improvements seen during events like the APEC summit due to drastic measures. Furthermore, the report touches upon a video summary discussing income inequality, adding a socio-economic dimension to the environmental challenges faced by the population. The report concludes by emphasizing the urgent need for effective and sustainable solutions to address Beijing's air pollution crisis.

Article
Inside Beijing's airpocalypse – a city made 'almost uninhabitable’ by pollution
[DATE]
student details
Email ID:

I n s i d e B e i j i n g ’ s a i r p o c a l y p s e P a g e | 1
The given article summarizes the Inside of Beijing’s airpocalypse- a city made ‘almost
uninhabitable’ by pollution from a science fiction film: a vision of everyday life, but with one
jarring difference that makes you realize you’re on another planet, or in a distant future era.
As pee the article, a sports class was going on with some unfamiliar changes i.e. gigantic
inflatable was noticed by Travis Washko, the director of sports. The parents along with the kids
were happy for the safe environment. But all of sudden, a grey blanket was hung in the sky with
de saturated haze and it created a warning to stay indoor because of the arrival of airpocalypse
(Xiao, 2015).
The quality of air in Beijing was a major concern and the level of pollution has affected the city
as well as its architecture. The toxic and harmful shroud has hampered the daily routine of the
city. People wearing face masks are seen on the regular basis but these days, canister filters are
also worn by people on the streets. The people living are struggling to deal with the poisonous
atmosphere. Many efforts were made that allowed the air-filtration systems in several schools of
Beijing which helped it to open their own clean-air dome (Wainwright, 2014).
Parents are leaving the city to protect their kids from adverse environment because they expect a
nontoxic environment for their kids after paying £20,000 per annum. The British school are
working on it by mounting air purifiers and installing new air curtains that will create a safety
code for the children and also generate happy parents. The sports fixtures are cancelled on a
regular basis because of kids getting cabin fever because of the door kept closed maximum of the
time. But after the establishment of the proper dome, the problem with the cabin fever among
kids has been reduced.
Chinese used to talk about AQI as their favorite pastimes and people are concerned about the
best air filters and their plans to visit clean air locations such as Fujian, Hainan and Tibet. Many
marathon participants dropped out because of the masks that turned out to be grey after running
very few kilometers (Wang, Hu, Xu, Christakos and Zhao, 2013).
When the writer came to Beijing in 2003, he was informed that the air is not as worse as London.
But after 10 years, it was said that they never has such bad days ever before. People used to play
outdoor which is rarely seen these days. Numerous air borne disease are seen. As per center
data, it was stated that on an average 18 year old people living in Beijing will use 40% of their

I n s i d e B e i j i n g ’ s a i r p o c a l y p s e P a g e | 2
life in facing health issues. It was also found that 350,000 to 500,000 people died in china
because of the air pollution. To eliminate such problems, the government has established laws
which include the closing of high carbon emission industries but it was not taken under practice
(Rotman and Slave, 2014).
A breathing bicycle was also designed to control such issues and other many attempts were made
to eradicate the issues of air pollution. The poor air quality is majorly caused by blowing up
mountains with dynamite. Water sprinklers were fitted on the top of the building to reduce the
issue which will automatically wash the smog out of the sky. The other attempt was to design a
“wet deposition” which will spray raindrop size in the air to control the pollution. It was further
declared in 2015 that all the local officials must use artificial rain to clear smog but it did not
take place because of the lack of chronic water availability. The country recently boats 7000
cloud seeding artillery guns with 5o planes and 50,000 employees who are ready to launch
whole-scale warfare on the atmosphere. Several projects are taken place which also include the
burning coal as one of the major solution. A proposal of Electronic vacuum cleaners installed
inside the parks to solve such issue (Li, Liu, Lü, Liang and Harmer, 2014).
A scientists at the Technological University of Deft in Netherland used buried coils of copper
and they also used to charge smog particles and suck the in the ground to eliminate the problem
of air pollution. 1,000 meters of smog will be converted into millimeter cube carbon crystal
which will create a diamond ring i.e. if one buys one smog ring, one is donating 1,000 cubic
meters of safe air. According to APEC summit, to clear the skies for the Olympics in 2008, the
industries within 125 mile radius were closed, cars were banned, schools were closed, and
mandatory offs for public sector workers, no issue of passport, to payment of taxes and no banks
open just to ensure the decrement in the air pollution (Hook et al., 2017).
As a result, now “Apec blue” is seen instead of Ocean Blue. The British school smog dome were
vacant and kids were enjoying outdoor lesson.
Summary of the video
This is the video in which Mr. Hudson who is the research professor of Economics is talking
about the book based on income and equality written by Thomas Pickttey and why exactly this
700 pages’ book is famous. He says that this book has statistics of income as well as health

I n s i d e B e i j i n g ’ s a i r p o c a l y p s e P a g e | 3
which none of the other books provides. The writer has described the symptoms as to what goes
wrong terms of the income of people and equality. The writer gives a very detailed description
about the capitalism and how to raise the market with the given data of pervious years and by
study them in details.

I n s i d e B e i j i n g ’ s a i r p o c a l y p s e P a g e | 4
References
Hook, G.D., Lester, L., Ji, M., Edney, K., Pope, C.G. and van der does-Ishikawa, L., 2017.
Responsibility and the risks of air pollution in China: media activism and the case of Under the
Dome. In Environmental Pollution and the Media (pp. 86-109). Routledge.
Li, F., Liu, Y., Lü, J., Liang, L. and Harmer, P., 2014. Ambient air pollution in China poses a
multifaceted health threat to outdoor physical activity. J Epidemiol Community Health, pp.jech-
2014.
Rotman, A.L. and Slave, C., 2014. The degree of pollution in china. Competitiveness of Agro-
Food and Environmental Economy, p.119.
Wainwright, O., 2014. Inside Beijing’s airpocalypse–a city made ‘almost uninhabitable’ by
pollution. The Guardian, 16.
Wang, J.F., Hu, M.G., Xu, C.D., Christakos, G. and Zhao, Y., 2013. Estimation of citywide air
pollution in Beijing. PloS one, 8(1), p.e53400.
Xiao, Y., 2015. The Experience to Abate Air Pollution: What Lessons can Beijing, China Draw
from Developed Countries When Trying to Reduce Emissions?