BEIJING // The air in the Chinese capital got steadily worse as last week drew to a close. Starting off with bright sunshine and blue skies on Sunday, it deteriorated as a grey smog cut visibility. By Wednesday morning, the US Embassy's online air pollution monitor classed the level of particulate matter as "very unhealthy" as concentrations had reached many times the level above which bad health effects start to be seen.
After several more days with bad smog, the pollution index remained at "very unhealthy" yesterday evening.
Air pollution can aggravate conditions such as asthma, cause short-term illnesses such as bronchitis, and has been linked to lung cancer and heart disease. Young people and the elderly are particulary vulnerable to the effects of poor air quality.
Last week's pollution was nothing unusual, either for Beijing or China as a whole, as the country suffers acutely poor air quality in most of its major cities.
While traffic is partly to blame, a major cause of the smog that afflicts Chinese urban areas and even often its countryside is the burning of coal, much of it in coal-fired power stations.
"There are very bad environmental implications in the country where [coal] is burned as well as where it's produced," said Jonathan Watts, an environmental journalist and author who last year released a book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, highlighting the damage being done to China's environment.
"You can see the smog," he said, gesturing across Beijing's hazy grey skyline.
Last year, despite overtaking the United States to become the country with the largest installed wind-energy capacity in the world, China accounted for 48 per cent of the world's coal use. Almost three-quarters of China's electricity generation capacity is from these plants.
As well as having almost twice the carbon footprint of gas-fired power plants per unit of energy generated, coal-fired power plants also lead to the release of large amounts of particulate matter and other pollutants including heavy metals.
These contribute to smog, acid rain and water contamination and have been linked to lung cancer and other conditions including birth defects.
With China's energy use having increased 11.2 per cent last year on the back of rapid economic growth, the country's use of coal continues to grow, despite the investments in renewable energy.
Indeed the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has predicted China's coal consumption could double over the next decade, even though the Chinese government's five-year plan, released earlier this year, said the country aims to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 17 per cent.
While China's western province of Xinjiang is thought to contain energy reserves totalling one trillion tonnes, and the country's total coal reserves are the third highest in the world, China is also buying more coal from abroad to feed its insatiable appetite, with imports tripling in 2009. Such is the demand for higher-grade foreign coal that a port is to be created in Washington state in the United States to ship to China tens of millions of tonnes of coal mined in Wyoming.
Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana, another major coal producer, said during a visit to Beijing last week that his state too would like to sell coal to China.
"We sell none to China. We would like to sell some," he said. "China is increasing its electricity capacity at the fastest rate in the world."
Instead of importing ever growing quantities from abroad, environmental groups would however prefer China to reduce its dependence upon coal, China's own reserves of which are thought to date back to the Jurassic geological period, which began 200 million years ago.
Earlier this year, Greenpeace in China released a report titled The True Cost of Coal - Coal Dust Storms, that warned that coal ash, produced by coal-fired power stations and containing toxic chemical elements such as lead, arsenic and selenium, is picked up from sites where it is dumped and spread by wind across China to major population centres such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. One tonne of coal ash is produced for every four tonnes of coal burned and in total, China produced 373 million tonnes of the ash in 2009, according to Greenpeace.
"We don't see this ever being controlled," said Tom Wang, a spokesman for Greenpeace China. "When it comes to the spread of coal ash, the situation is not improving at all."
While in recent years local authorities, including in Beijing, have moved to replace dirtier coal-based heating systems with cleaner facilities using alternative fuels, environmentalists believe such clean-up efforts are being cancelled out by the relentless increase in coal consumption to generate electricity. They would like further emphasis on renewable energy sources and reduced reliance on cheap coal.
"We see at the moment there will be more consumption of coal [in China], whether it's domestic or imported from other countries," said Mr Wang.
dbardsley@thenational.ae
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Scoreline:
Everton 4
Richarlison 13'), Sigurdsson 28', Digne 56', Walcott 64'
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Eyasses squad
Charlie Preston (captain) – goal shooter/ goalkeeper (Dubai College)
Arushi Holt (vice-captain) – wing defence / centre (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Olivia Petricola (vice-captain) – centre / wing attack (Dubai English Speaking College)
Isabel Affley – goalkeeper / goal defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Jemma Eley – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Alana Farrell-Morton – centre / wing / defence / wing attack (Nord Anglia International School)
Molly Fuller – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Caitlin Gowdy – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Noorulain Hussain – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai College)
Zahra Hussain-Gillani – goal defence / goalkeeper (British School Al Khubairat)
Claire Janssen – goal shooter / goal attack (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Eliza Petricola – wing attack / centre (Dubai English Speaking College)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Match info
Karnataka Tuskers 110-3
J Charles 35, M Pretorius 1-19, Z Khan 0-16
Deccan Gladiators 111-5 in 8.3 overs
K Pollard 45*, S Zadran 2-18
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sav%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Purvi%20Munot%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%20as%20of%20March%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
EVIL%20DEAD%20RISE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ELee%20Cronin%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlyssa%20Sutherland%2C%20Morgan%20Davies%2C%20Lily%20Sullivan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Aya Iskandarani
