Don't worry!
Everything's fine!
I'm just in a fairyland.
Ughhh, dying.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored I'm your host Chris Chappell.
Okay, sorry, one second.
Help me Captain Planet!
Ah, much better.
So a few days ago,
state-run Xinhua News asked on their Twitter account if the city of Shenyang was experiencing
a fairyland or doomsday.
Those things are easily confused, I know.
You see, the pollution there was so bad,
they couldn't tell.
And if you think it's just China's problem, it's not.
Like wealthy officials fleeing corruption charges,
China's air pollution is also flying across the Pacific and landing in America.
In fact, nearly a third of San Francisco's air pollution comes from China.
China's air pollution is bad--and it's probably only going to get worse.
But why am I telling you this?
Let me show you...
Here are 10 images to help you understand China's doomsday air pollution.
Number 10.
This is downtown Beijing.
The China Central Television Headquarters.
Can't see anything?
This is what it looked like on a slightly better day,
and this is what it's supposed to look like--after the Communist Party ordered hundreds of factories
to close down to clear the skies ahead of the 2008 Olympics.
That was temporary.
Number 9.
This was Beijing's air pollution two years later, in November 2010.
That's after the US Embassy accidentally called Beijing's pollution "crazy bad" on Twitter.
Apparently that was a joke embedded in the embassy's air monitoring program.
If the level of PM 2.5 pollution went beyond the most "hazardous" level of 500--
which was so outrageous it wasn't supposed to ever happen--
it would Tweet "crazy bad."
Oops.
Number 8.
So you know how a pollution level of 500 is hazardous,
and above that is crazy bad?
Well this was the northeastern city of Shenyang on Sunday.
It reached 1,400.
That's 50 times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe to breath.
And you really shouldn't be driving in this.
Number 7.
Would you want to eat food grown on this farm?
Some Chinese scientists have said air pollution is so bad it's like a nuclear winter.
Because it's affecting plants' ability to grow.
Number 6.
Did you know that 9 out of every 10 Chinese cities fail the government's own pollution
standards?
But, hey at least you can enjoy a beautiful sunrise in Jilin.
Number 5.
Part of the reason China's air is so bad is they burn almost as much coal as the rest
of the world combined.
66 percent of China's energy comes from it.
But who knew coal could be so colorful?
Number 4.
You know how people say you can see the Great Wall of China from space?
Well that's not true.
But you know what you can see from space?
Beijing's smog.
The gray part is the smog.
It's 600 miles across.
Number 3
There's an old Chinese saying:
"In the sky, there is heaven.
On earth, there is Hangzhou and Suzhou."
Well, this is Hangzhou.
Like I said, it was an old saying.
Number 2
Ah, the beautiful Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin.
Illumined by an angelic halo... of smog.
And Number 1.
With pollution so bad, Chinese citizens are taking things into their own hands.
Or faces.
Since you have to wear facemasks so often thee days, why not be fashionable?
I wonder if I could get my own custom design?
Now I know this is all pretty scary.
But just relax, take a deep breath and…
on second though,
no, maybe don't do that.
So what do you think about the doomsday levels of air pollution in China?
Leave your comments below and be sure to subscribe for more episodes of china Uncensored.
Once again I'm Chris Chappell, see you next time.