what it’s like to live where it’s not even safe to breathe

It was a 20-
It\'s only a few minutes walk from a New Year\'s party to another New Year\'s party, but none of us want to take the risk.
Outside, Beijing is shrouded in the worst smog of winter, so every breath, even behind the mask I have filtered, has the acid chemistry of a freshly bleached bathroom.
We saw the red \"rental\" sign of the taxi in the smoke and tied it together.
Half of the invitees begged to leave from the party, preferring to seal the relative safety of the apartment, rather than trying to find somewhere in poison dust.
Other people have perma.
In the winter in northern China, the cold hangs over many of us and the sore throat cannot heal.
Last New Year, it took me 40 minutes to find an apartment for a friend I \'ve been
There were dozens of times before, and no landmarks were found in the haze.
Even on sunny days, the city blocks in Beijing cannot be distinguished, but now they are just thick gray stains.
Inside, on the 16 th floor, we can only see the car lights and some neon building signs on the highway below from Beijing.
We compared air filters and masks.
Ben just came out of the bluer sky in southern Fuzhou and brought a Laser Egg --an oval air-
The quality monitor is small enough to hold it by hand
Show our hostess.
\"195 inside,\" he said . \"
We are sure that the air we breathe is only \"unhealthy\", not \"unhealthy \"--
Size like outdoor.
\"Look, we can turn it down a bit,\" said Ben flick . \".
\"You see, now it shows the measurement scale in China.
The number dropped by about 40 points.
\"I talked to the people who created this and he said they have to make sure that China is ranked first in size or it will never be approved for sale.
But we quickly moved on to other topics.
Architecture, dating, United States of AmericaS.
Police, early education, wedding.
Maybe we shouldn\'t.
Outside, the air is filled with pollutants, so that an unprecedented volcanic reaction has occurred, applying sulfur over the city.
We live in a place where breathing is not safe. every winter, our lungs are scratched and rich pupils play football under a sealed dome.
However, only 200 or 300 of the days on the AQI scale --
Unhealthy days, or very unhealthy days, can trigger public crises in New York, London and even Los Angeles --
We regard them as cloudy days.
In northern China, even the worst days have been standardized and turned into routines for filters, masks and inspections.
The situation seems to be quite different in 2012.
Public at the time-
Prompted in part by the United StatesS.
The US embassy released pollution information, one of the most successful pollution information in the United States. S. -
China\'s diplomacy
Start asking for change
When Chinese people share pollution data angrily on social media, the government is forced to listen.
After all, unlike beaten farmers or poisoned village soil, the air cannot be ignored.
It spread to the home of the city\'s \"middle class --
Chinese Government Support Foundation-
And sneaked into the tendrils near Zhongnanhai, where China\'s top leader lives.
The newspaper abandoned the euphemism for \"Fog\" and \"Fog\", pointing out these problems in a relatively open manner.
I studied the Chinese language of the Clean Air Act in the UK because a lot of my friends are posting.
As a newly created term says, \"airpoc\" cannot escape.
In the end, the government stopped denying the issue and began issuing appropriate data, smoke warnings, and traffic and factory closures.
These data show that the situation has improved slowly in the years following the disaster in 2012.
So far this winter, the situation has deteriorated again, and the North has fallen into a spiral of air garbage hovering around Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin.
However, regular data on everyone\'s mobile phone shows today\'s catastrophic pm2. 5. 5 figures —
Tiny particles that pose a major risk to health
The public is no longer angry.
Instead, China acknowledges that the problem has helped normalize it, making toxic air look manageable, manageable and understandable.
At the same time, China\'s small space to freely discuss the causes of the crisis began to be shut down as the government took over air control for itself.
Of course, there is no need for dictatorship to normalize environmental disasters.
Fog in London has been an acceptable danger for decades.
\"My dog got lost in the thick fog of London, in the thick fog of London,\" was once the favorite singer in the concert hall, and my grandmother would sing to me.
The stone building in my hometown of Manchester is still marked with dirt from past factories.
12,000 deaths.
In a few days, not a few years.
Finally woke the British.
But the new situation in Beijing is the resulting market.
My friend Meng bought 5,000 yuan-
Average monthly salary of Beijingers
Air filters for each room in her apartment.
Front every 24 hours
The hourly store has a mask shelf that promises \"special protection\" for PM2 \".
5 \"and\" new filter elements.
\"Smog has become a natural hazard, and it\'s a good job for citizens.
The Beijing municipal government listed it as a \"measuring disaster\" a few weeks ago\"
Like a tornado or hurricane.
The practical effect of these protective measures is questionable.
According to the Beijing News test, less than half of the masks on the market provide real protection --
Only 20% were sold in the children\'s market.
The efficacy of the filter, and whether you need a serious beast on the machine, or if you can get from do-it-
Your own kit is a heated debate.
It is almost impossible for us to bear the toll.
We know that at least millions of Chinese die from air pollution every year.
We know that this has a great impact on the development of children\'s lungs, the incidence of asthma is also very high, and our daily breathing is another gap in cancer probability.
But, beyond the worst days, it\'s easy to push it away from our minds and narrow it down to the distant statistical realm, not the reality that we ourselves might be sick.
It is often difficult to identify a culprit.
My friend Ian Sherman\'s 36-year-old death from lung cancer is the result of smoking in Beijing for many years, or even longer, or is genetic dice bad luck?
Of course, the poor do not even have the illusion of control.
Security guards and street vendors stay outside all day, even if the air is eyes --wateringly bad.
Even a cheap air purifier is an unbearable luxury, especially given the cost of replacing the filter and the sharp increase in electricity charges.
It would be a mistake to assume that public anger has dissipated.
The short window allows people to discuss Chai Jing\'s groundbreaking documentary Under the Dome, which shows that people are still eager to talk about the issue.
But air pollution in winter has become a seasonal event, not a disaster.
This is a story of northern China, but soon the whole world will face it.
Probably not from the air, but from the slow disaster of climate change --
Flooded basement, harsh summer and poor crops
We were shocked by these things at first, but then we started to accept and work hard, not fight.
We will mentally readjust and turn what was once unacceptable into bad.
However, when it comes to rest, everything becomes sweeter.
Last week, in a few happy days, the wind blew away the haze, the sky became blue and clear.
At the gate of the back sea, one of the city\'s most beautiful parks, I was delighted with a stranger, a middleman
The old man walks his dog out.
We marvel at the mountains around Beijing, but are usually invisible in the smog. “Look!
He pointed to the edge of the city.
\"You can see Xishan!