To breathe or not to breathe: the question we’re all asking in Beijing 还能呼吸吗：我们所有人都在问北京这个问题

To breathe in Beijing is to participate in a human tragedy of sorts; a scene so draconian, so morbid, and (as days of persistent nosebleeds and headaches can attest) so viscerally offensive that it begs the question: what have we done? 

It was midday and the city was dark. I was staring directly at the sun, but all I saw was a faint circular amber glow. In other words, it was an otherwise perfectly sunny, cloudless day, but the air was so thick that the sky was lightless… lifeless. Indeed, reports confirmed that last week was the worst air pollution China’s capital has ever recorded (concentration of PM2.5 particles now easily exceed 800 mcg/m^3).

Over and over I am asked by friends around the world to describe the air. Here’s the best I can do:

1. Imagine placing a sheet of steel into an impossibly high-powered blender. Allow this blender to shred the steel into a microscopic pulp, and then inhale.

2. Imagine breathing in the smoky air at the heart of Idaho’s 2012 wildfires during their most violent moment. Readings show that Beijing’s pollution last week was over five times worse than that*.

3. Post-apocalyptic.

It’s worth mentioning that Beijing has a fair share of pollution-free days, and on those days, the city is spectacular. Perhaps it’s memories of those beautiful days, that knowledge of what Beijing can be when not suffocating under this poison cloth of toxicity, that made the scene before me so heartbreaking.

Beijing’s pollution problem is unique in its egalitarianism. Those of us braving the streets and perched in towering office and government buildings all breathe about 15 times per minute, and into our lungs and bloodstream we invite a potent cocktail of 2.5mcg particles, the output of our machines, in hopes that the death we inhale breathes life into the economy.

Is this the society we want for ourselves? Is it the air we want our babies breathing?

I hope the sight before my eyes will never again be seen by any human, anytime, anywhere. We can, and must, do better.

*(163 mcg/m^3 v Beijing’s current 845 mcg/m^3)

在北京呼一口气可谓是参与了一场人类悲剧。这场面十分残酷、令人毛骨悚然、打从心底里感到不爽 (持续数天的感冒头痛可以作证）。不禁想问：我们到底做了什么？

现在是北京时间12点，但北京却黑蒙蒙的一片。我努力直视太阳，却也只能看见一片微弱的环形光晕。换句话说，这本是理想中万里无云的大晴天，但是空气太过厚重以至于天空暗淡无光，也了无生气。事实上，有报道称上周是有史以来中国首都遭受空气污染最为严重的一周（PM2.5颗粒浓度现在轻松超过了800毫克每立方米）

2. 想象一下人们呼吸的空气是2012年内华达州火灾的中心地带最猛烈的那一瞬间。有刊物表明北京上周的污染程度比那个时候严重五倍有余。