{"id":4693,"date":"2017-10-09T17:21:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T09:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/?p=4693"},"modified":"2020-07-15T11:57:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T03:57:00","slug":"chinas-air-getting-better-2017-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/chinas-air-getting-better-2017-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Is China\u2019s Air Getting Better? 2017 So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beijing said they would cut air pollution in a plan announced earlier this year<\/a> (and a few months before<\/a> and another one back in 2013<\/a>). But what does the data say? To get to the bottom of it, I analyzed monthly PM2.5 data for 2017 so far and compared it to the averages from December 2013 to 2016.<\/p>\n

Beijing<\/h3>\n

Overall, Beijing is better in 2017 (except for a bad January).<\/p>\n

\"2017\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How much better? Beijing\u2019s PM2.5 is down 14% compared to prior years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shanghai<\/h3>\n

The situation in Shanghai was similar\u2014lower in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shanghai is down a full 22% this year compared to prior years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chengdu<\/h3>\n

After a rough January, Chengdu also saw lower PM2.5.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chengdu is down 20% over prior years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Xi’an<\/h3>\n

The only exception is Xi\u2019an. Xi\u2019an had a rough January and February, followed by an average rest of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Year over year, Xi\u2019an\u2019s PM2.5 was actually up 5%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h3>\n

The Bad News Amid The Good News<\/h3>\n

Despite the (mostly) good news, there is some bad news for China\u2019s air.<\/p>\n

1. Even after this improvement, average PM2.5 levels are unhealthy in ALL four cities. That means, if you live in one of these cities, you\u2019re still breathing unsafe air on average.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0China\u2019s Environment Ministry forecasted<\/a>\u00a0that weather conditions may make China\u2019s air pollution particularly bad this winter (read \u201cworse than already bad winters\u201d).<\/p>\n

3. Ozone is arguably China\u2019s second most serious pollutant, and ozone hasn\u2019t gone down. In Beijing and Chengdu, it\u2019s roughly flat. In Shanghai and Xi\u2019an, ozone went up in 2017.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll check back in in January to see whether China can finish strong or whether the Environment Ministry\u2019s foreboding winter forecast comes true.<\/p>\n

Breathe safe!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beijing said they would cut air pollution in a plan announced earlier this year (and a few months before and another one back in 2013). But what does the data say? To get to the bottom of it, I analyzed monthly PM2.5 data for 2017 so far and compared it … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,257],"tags":[236,75,204,215],"class_list":["post-4693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-pm2-5","tag-236","tag-beijing","tag-chengdu","tag-xian"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4693"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5159,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions\/5159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}