Beijing Bans 5 Million Cars On Alternating Days, Sees Clear Skies For First Time In Ages
Having clear skies over Beijing is a simple matter of grounding 2.5 millions cars. That’s how China ahieved blue skies in time for a military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in WWII. For two weeks, factories in the region had to cut down their emissions. Meanwhile, the city would ground half of the cars, totaling in about 5 million, on alternating days. The result? Clear skies, and air quality index reached a level 17 out of 500, considered a very good result worldwide.
Unfortunately, restrictions ended that same day, and Friday the 4th was marked with gray skies and a the air quality index reached 160 (considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups” in the US). “The Military Parade Blue went away in a snap — it feels like such a mystery, like making magic,” wrote on Chinese internet user. “Military Parade Blue” is the satirical name for the phenomenon, and it harkens back to “APEC Blue” that Beijing had last Autumn.
(h/t: boredpanda )
5 million cars were forced to drive on alternating days in Beijing, and factories had to restrict emission for two weeks
Without the smog, buildings far in the distance could be finally seen
Beijing’s average levels of PM (particulate matter) dropped by 73.2% compared to the last year due to the ban
40,000 construction sites in and around Beijing also shut down for the duration
Air quality index, an international standard of measuring pollution, clocked in at 17 out of 500, signifying very healthy air
This is how the Great Wall looks without smog
Martynas Klimas
Writes like a mad dervish, rolls to dodge responsibility, might have bitten the Moon once.
20-Year-Old Engineer’s Idea To Make Ocean Clean Itself Will Be Launched Next Year
Boyan Slat is a 20 year old with an idea on how to clean plastic trash from our oceans. The Ocean Cleanup initiative wants to reduce the amount of trash in the oceans by employing floating barriers that are moored to the seabed. They would collect lighter-than-water plastic trash with the help of the ocean currents and without harming sea life.
The pilot, which will be deployed near Tsushima Island (located between Japan and Korea) in the first quarter of 2016, will test the durability and viability of the project. It will be only 2000 meters long, a far cry from the planned 100 kilometers length, but it will still be the longest floating structure on Earth.
Cleaning up plastic garbage in ocean, like the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is impractical with ships. However, the 100km stationary cleanup array could remove 42% of the Garbage Patch over 10 years, 70,320,000kg in total.
More info: theoceancleanup.com | Facebook | Twitter (h/t: boredpanda )
When it’s deployed in 2016, the 2,000m floating line will become the longest floating structure in the world.
This concept will test out 20-year-old Boyan Slat’s plan to rid the oceans of floating plastic waste.
This plan would use ocean currents to skim the plastic trash without harming the sea life.
The eventual Ocean Cleanup Array would be a 100km long and able to collect 70,320,000kg of plastic waste over 10 years
Estimated clean up cost would be roughly 4.53 euros (5.04 USD) per kilogram – 3% of the cost of other potential clean-up methods
Martynas Klimas
Writes like a mad dervish, rolls to dodge responsibility, might have bitten the Moon once.
