The Chinese government has announced measures to combat air pollution. It is believed to be responsible for the premature death of nearly 500,000 people each year.
Exit the images that we knew of the People’s Republic of China in the 70s. More photos of thousands of workers riding their bikes in the streets of Beijing. In recent years, the anti-pollution mask has taken precedence in major Chinese metropolises. With the galloping industrialization that China has experienced since the early 1980s, the country has become the second largest economy in the world but also the leading polluter. This can be explained by the fact that China derives 70% of its energy from coal, an extremely polluting energy source. Frenzied industrialization has also influenced the presence of fine particles in the air. They reached levels of concentration in the air thirty times higher than the threshold recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization).
A plan to reduce pollution
The new Chinese Premier, Li Keqlang, has proposed a series of announcements in an attempt to stem this phenomenon of air pollution. “It’s nature’s warning to a blind and inefficient development model,” he said. We must resolutely declare war on pollution. “
To do this, the Chinese premier is seeking to reduce the massive use of coal. “50,000 coal boilers will be removed this year” and “six million old vehicles (…) will be scrapped” he said. Measures which seek to reduce the impact of highly polluting elements.
Innovations that go in this direction
In the aftermath of the Prime Minister’s announcements, scientists presented a new technique that could partially solve the problem of particle clouds in Chinese metropolises.
The aviation ministry came up with the original idea of using drones to disperse the pollution fog. Loaded with 700 kilos of chemical agents, these remotely piloted planes would freeze the clouds of particles which would make them fall to the ground. The first tests carried out over Beijing would have been conclusive. It remains to be seen how the authorities will “pick up” the particles that have fallen on the ground.
Chinese Internet users have demanded that more concrete and solid measures be taken to prevent thousands of citizens from dying each year because of this pollution.
350,000 to 500,000 deaths per year due to pollution
The announcements come at a peak just a few months after figures were revealed on the number of pollution-related deaths. In December 2013, former Chinese health minister Chan Zhu signed a paper, in the scientific journal The Lancet, warning the Chinese authorities about the catastrophic impact of pollution on the Chinese population. “Studies by the World Bank, WHO and the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning have concluded that between 350,000 and 500,000 people die prematurely each year in China from pollution. “
Substantial figures that have put pollution in fourth place of threats to the health of the Chinese behind heart disease, health risks and cigarettes. Lung cancer has become the most diagnosed cancer due to air pollution. Figures show that between 2002 and 2011, the number of lung cancer doubled in Beijing alone.
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