China orders factories shut as smog nightmare continues

I was once in a city whose coal plants provided a hefty amount of Beijing's electricity.

Indoors visibility was almost as bad as outdoors - a few metres.

How do we wean China - and everyone else - off coal?

well, they are forgetting to use the "Clean Coal" (sarcasm)

He vowed “action” on greenhouse emissions, repeating existing pledges and telling the summit that poor nations should not have to sacrifice economic growth

poor nations should not have to sacrifice economic growth, just its people.

BTW, china has 26 nuke reactors being built. At least they are planning for the future, whatever that future may be for the human race.

Always wondered why they don't just pipe the flue output to the bottom of a pond to filter it.

Drax is a pretty clean power station as far as coal goes, and North Yorkshire isn't blanketed in smog. Burning coal can be acceptable if done right.

Very distressing image and metrics. I've had coworkers and friends travel to China only to return with acute respiratory inflammation because of the transient but dense pollution. The U.S. is fortunate to enjoy clean air and water relative to other developed and developing countries.

The U.S. is fortunate to enjoy clean air and water relative to other developed and developing countries.

@Joe. L.A. is pretty bad. The smog is terrible, way too many cars on the road.

I've had coworkers and friends travel to China only to return with acute respiratory inflammation because of the transient but dense pollution.

No kidding. One of my co-workers visited there as well with his wife. Came back with problems that I had warned him about earlier. Bad cough that went away after about a week or so. And my state may have some high pollution days but apparently the cleaner air did him good.

It's a shame, China is such a naturally beautiful country... and yet it keeps getting ruined by stupid choices.