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Comment by restalis | Hacker News Reader

First time I read it I interpreted it as a pun! (What color may an alert in a red country be?!)

On a more serious note, I'm sorry to know that there are people forced to live day by day in a high pollution environment though. I hope that the period of health tribute being paid in the name of industrial development won't last too long!

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"I'm sorry to know that there are people forced to live day by day in a high pollution environment though."

It's funny, for > 99.9% in Beijing, they have no reasonable way to escape, due to family ties, personal financial disruption from having to leave a job/career, etc. But there are many (not only foreigners) who could much more easily uproot and move to another city or another country.

The thing is, you go on hoping it's going to get better over time, and pushing the decision further out, as 'another few months' of this pollution isn't going to make a serious health difference.

What I don't understand is that since Beijing is also the center of government, how is it that they are not showing more self interest and fix the situation. It's really a paradox.

The Chinese elite are showing plenty of self-interest. They have an entire infrastructure of purified air to breathe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/world/asia/the-privileges-...

That's an amazing display of hypocrisy by government leaders who usually keep right control over PR. I'd be unsurprised yet impressed to learn that the company that makes air purifiers for the ruling class, and then publicly advertises that, was a CIA operation to foment a rebellion against the tyrannical government.

I see it as completely unsurprising, and would be equally unsurprised to hear of this in a capitalist country.

Is organic non-growth-hormone corn-syrup-free food that is too expensive for the poor a socialist plot?

If China is anything like India, corrupt elite are interested in things like money and power rather than quality of life. long term health, etc. Most people want to live in an urban environment inspite of traffic problems. Its just the mindset. Pollution doesn't kill you overnight so they don;t really care.

I'm studying abroad in Beijing right now, and my throat began to hurt even at lower levels of PM2.5 simply because I wasn't wearing a mask. I'm very surprised at the number of people who don't wear a mask; they either don't value their health or don't know how bad the air is because they've been accustomed to it.

How much does your mask help?

The package says it blocks >=90%, which is still horrible for my health, but thankfully I'm leaving in less than 2 months. It certainly feels better though.

Out of curiosity - what are typical levels of PM2.5 over there?

130 - 170 AQI is kind of typical. With <50 levels sprinkled throughout the year.

A couple dozen days a year it gets really bad, worse than this current streak.

I didn't even look at the levels when I came in September because everything looked fine, but lately it's varied a lot, between 100-350 the past few weeks.

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