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![Chinese man wears a protective face mask as he passes by the CCTV building on a day of heavy pollution on November 30, 2015 in Beijing, China. China's capital and many cities in the northern part of the country recorded the worst smog of the year with air quality devices in some areas unable to read such high levels of pollutants. Levels of PM 2.5, considered the most hazardous, crossed 600 units in Beijing, nearly 25 times the acceptable standard set by the World Health Organization. The governments of more than 190 countries are meeting in Paris this week to set targets on reducing carbon emissions in an attempt to forge a new global agreement on climate change.]()
Chinese man wears a protective face mask as he passes by the CCTV building on a day of heavy pollution on Monday in Beijing, China. China’s capital and many cities in the northern part of the country recorded the worst smog of the year with air quality devices in some areas unable to read such high levels of pollutants: photo by Kevin Frayer, 1 December 2015
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance.
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1957): Of Mere Being (1954), from Opus Posthumous, 1957
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Vehicles pass on a road as smog covers #China's capital #BeijingSmog REUTERS/Jason Lee: image via Reuters Paris Pix @ReutersParisPix, 1 December 2015
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Aiyaa! Another day of chunky air in China. The People's Republic is polluting the motherland. #BeijingSmog: image via Mo Fei Chen @DynaMoChen, 1 December 2015
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Beijing factories shut amid smog nightmare: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 December 2015
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#Beijing escalates smog warning, orders factories to shut down and trucks off the road: image via Jim Roberts @nycjim, 29 November 2015
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You can taste the GDP today #Beijing: image via Robert Foyle Hunwick @MrRFH, 30 November 2015
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Beijing today. PM 2.5 in office: 67 ("Fresh Air"). Outside: 966. #beijing #beijingair #beijingsmog: image via Martijn Herrman @Martijn Herrman, 30 November 2015
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#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
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#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
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#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
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#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
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“So what's the difference between #Beijing and Mars?""We have better food, they have better traffic.": image via Zijing Wu @zijing, 30 November 2015
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#Beijing issues severe smog warning: image via BBC Weather @bbcweather, 30 November 2015
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Reports of the worst #smog of the year in parts of China. This is Tiananmen Square in #Beijing: image via BBC Weather @bbcweather, 30 November 2015
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So yeah, mask definitely on #BeijingSmog: image via Kyle Alcott @KyleJAlcott, 30 November 2015
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#BeijingSmog so hard to breathe today. #Beijing under the dome: image via Esseté @EssetiYapi, 30 November 2015
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Smog chokes Beijing as Paris climate talks get under way #China #climatechange #BeijingSmog: image via Gulf-Times GulfTimes_QATAR, 30 November 2015 Doha, Qatar
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#TheWiderImage: #Smog chokes #Beijing REUTERS/damirsagoli #BeijingSmog #COP21: image via Reuters Paris Pix @ReutersParisPix, 30 November 2015
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Shijiazhuang, AQI 360, China 2014. This panoramic shot shows a city barely visible through thick fog. Only the title -– AQI 360 –- suggests there is something sinister here. AQI stands for ‘Air Quality Index’. The index runs from 1-500, where 0-50 is ‘good’ and 301-500 indicates a hazardous level of pollution. AQI 301-500 can aggravate heart or lung disease, lead to premature mortality in the elderly and cause serious respiratory problems in the general population: photo by Benedikt Partenheimer via The Guardian 18 November 2014 ![]()
Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
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Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
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China World Trade Centre Tower III (C), one of the tallest buildings in the city at 330m (1083ft), in the heavy haze in Beijing. Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing’s concentration of PM 2.5 particles –- those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream –-hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25: photo by Jason Lee / Reuters via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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China World Trade Centre Tower III (C), one of the tallest buildings in the city at 330m (1083ft), in the heavy haze in Beijing: photo by Jason Lee / Reuters via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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A big screen flashes commercials on the exterior of an office building in Xi'an on 15 December 2012: photo by Mayi Wong / EPA via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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A big screen flashes commercials on the exterior of an office building in Xi'an on 15 December 2012: photo by Mayi Wong / EPA via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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The Jinshanling Great Walls in Chengde, north of Beijing: photo by ChinaFotoPress via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
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The Jinshanling Great Walls in Chengde, north of Beijing: photo by ChinaFotoPress via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
![Chinese tourists walk on a slippery section of ice as snow is seen on the Great Wall after a snowfall on Monday near Beijing, China. China's capital and the northern part of the country received snow on Sunday as winter set in]()
Chinese tourists walk on a slippery section of ice as snow is seen on the Great Wall after a snowfall on Monday near Beijing, China: photo by Kevin Frayer, 23 November 2015
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Performers wearing effigies of world leaders gather for breakfast on the eve of #COP21. By Eric Feferberg #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department #@AFPphoto, 30 November 2015
![A Chinese tourist walks in the tongue of Glacier 1 at the base of the 7,556 m (24,790 ft) Mount Gongga, known in Tibetan as Minya Konka, China. Hailuogou is one of China's 8,500 monsoonal glaciers and the longest of 71 glaciers on the eastern slope of Mt. Gongga. Monsoonal glaciers are found at lower altitudes and are at much higher risk to the effects of rising temperatures and climate change. Chinese scientists studying the impact on the Tibetan plateau warn the ablation rate of monsoonal glaciers is alarming. Data shows the Hailuogou basin glaciers have lost nearly 3 kilometers of mass since the 1960s and the rate is accelerating. Some researchers are concerned the glaciers could shrink at an accelerated rate beyond the present 20 meters a year and thin at a rate of more than 1 meter per year. At an upcoming conference in Paris, the governments of 196 countries will meet to set targets on reducing carbon emissions in an attempt to forge a new global agreement on climate change.]()
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance.
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1957): Of Mere Being (1954), from Opus Posthumous, 1957
Vehicles pass on a road as smog covers #China's capital #BeijingSmog REUTERS/Jason Lee: image via Reuters Paris Pix @ReutersParisPix, 1 December 2015
Aiyaa! Another day of chunky air in China. The People's Republic is polluting the motherland. #BeijingSmog: image via Mo Fei Chen @DynaMoChen, 1 December 2015
Beijing factories shut amid smog nightmare: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 December 2015
#Beijing escalates smog warning, orders factories to shut down and trucks off the road: image via Jim Roberts @nycjim, 29 November 2015
You can taste the GDP today #Beijing: image via Robert Foyle Hunwick @MrRFH, 30 November 2015
Beijing today. PM 2.5 in office: 67 ("Fresh Air"). Outside: 966. #beijing #beijingair #beijingsmog: image via Martijn Herrman @Martijn Herrman, 30 November 2015
#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
#Smog covers area of 530,000 sqkm around Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as heavy air pollution hits 31 cities: image via CCTVNEWS @cctvnews, 29 November 2015
Choking smog blankets Beijing just as climate talks begin in #Paris: image via Jim Barnett @JimBarnettNews, 30 November 2015
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Choking smog blankets Beijing just as climate talks begin in #Paris: image via Jim Barnett @JimBarnettNews, 30 November 2015
Choking smog blankets Beijing just as climate talks begin in #Paris: image via Jim Barnett @JimBarnettNews, 30 November 2015
“So what's the difference between #Beijing and Mars?""We have better food, they have better traffic.": image via Zijing Wu @zijing, 30 November 2015
#Beijing issues severe smog warning: image via BBC Weather @bbcweather, 30 November 2015
Reports of the worst #smog of the year in parts of China. This is Tiananmen Square in #Beijing: image via BBC Weather @bbcweather, 30 November 2015
So yeah, mask definitely on #BeijingSmog: image via Kyle Alcott @KyleJAlcott, 30 November 2015
#BeijingSmog so hard to breathe today. #Beijing under the dome: image via Esseté @EssetiYapi, 30 November 2015
Smog chokes Beijing as Paris climate talks get under way #China #climatechange #BeijingSmog: image via Gulf-Times GulfTimes_QATAR, 30 November 2015 Doha, Qatar
#TheWiderImage: #Smog chokes #Beijing REUTERS/damirsagoli #BeijingSmog #COP21: image via Reuters Paris Pix @ReutersParisPix, 30 November 2015
Shijiazhuang, AQI 360, China 2014. This panoramic shot shows a city barely visible through thick fog. Only the title -– AQI 360 –- suggests there is something sinister here. AQI stands for ‘Air Quality Index’. The index runs from 1-500, where 0-50 is ‘good’ and 301-500 indicates a hazardous level of pollution. AQI 301-500 can aggravate heart or lung disease, lead to premature mortality in the elderly and cause serious respiratory problems in the general population: photo by Benedikt Partenheimer via The Guardian 18 November 2014
Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
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Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
![]()
Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
Great Wall cloaked in smog, Beijing: photo by Vicky (vicky tricky), 10 October 2005
China World Trade Centre Tower III (C), one of the tallest buildings in the city at 330m (1083ft), in the heavy haze in Beijing. Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing’s concentration of PM 2.5 particles –- those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream –-hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25: photo by Jason Lee / Reuters via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
China World Trade Centre Tower III (C), one of the tallest buildings in the city at 330m (1083ft), in the heavy haze in Beijing: photo by Jason Lee / Reuters via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
A big screen flashes commercials on the exterior of an office building in Xi'an on 15 December 2012: photo by Mayi Wong / EPA via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
A big screen flashes commercials on the exterior of an office building in Xi'an on 15 December 2012: photo by Mayi Wong / EPA via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
The Jinshanling Great Walls in Chengde, north of Beijing: photo by ChinaFotoPress via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
The Jinshanling Great Walls in Chengde, north of Beijing: photo by ChinaFotoPress via The Guardian, 25 February 2014
Chinese tourists walk on a slippery section of ice as snow is seen on the Great Wall after a snowfall on Monday near Beijing, China: photo by Kevin Frayer, 23 November 2015
Performers wearing effigies of world leaders gather for breakfast on the eve of #COP21. By Eric Feferberg #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department #@AFPphoto, 30 November 2015
A Chinese tourist walks in the tongue of Glacier 1 at the base of the 7,556 m (24,790 ft) Mount Gongga, known in Tibet as Minya Konka. Hailuogou is one of China’s 8,500 monsoonal glaciers and the longest of 71 glaciers on the eastern slope of Mt. Gongga: photo by Kevin Frayer, 25 November 2015