Beijing is choking

Fast paced, mindless growth comes at a price and Beijing seems to be paying so much so that the people are gasping for breath. Its pollution, smog crisis has reached hazardous, off-the-chart levels. Last week, the Chinese Govt had issued a new rule –drivers could face 3,000 yuan ($482) in fines if their vehicles exceed emissions limits, while the construction of new cement and steel plants would be outlawed. Street vendors would also be fined 5,000 yuan for barbecuing food on the side of the road on smoggy days. But the Govt would have never imagined that it would have to implement this so soon.

Yesterday, air quality hit 517 on an index maintained by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which described the pollution as "Beyond Index". And over the past two weeks it had stayed above "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" levels.  And Beijing temporarily shut down 103 heavily polluting factories and took 30% vehicles off roads to combat dangerously high air pollution. Yet the air quality remained hazardous. When pollution above 300 index is considered hazardous, air in Beijing is usually above 500 and this month, it has been exceptionally bad, with pollution going to 30-40 times above safety levels.

The fastest growing economy in the world and this is what happens when growth is not sensible. The Govt has bludgeoned its way through anything and anybody, build a road to Everest too but look at how its own people are choking. It can import just about anything, water ever, but clean air? Nature has its own way of meting out justice and looks like She is having the last laugh in Beijing right now! And yes, it is a lesson for the rest of world to learn – what not to do for economic growth, at any cost!