20,000 stranded as heavy smog grounds flights at Chengdu airport
Source: San Francisco Gate
A soupy combination of smog and fog forced Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to close its runway for 10 hours on Saturday, stranding 20,000 passengers.
The central Chinese airport was hit with the worst fog "in years," according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. According to the World Air Quality Index, the city's air quality was at 280, considered the "very unhealthy" range.
China Central Television reported that visibility was down to less than 700 feet in some places. During the smog delay, some Chengdu-bound planes were forced to land at nearby airports.
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The smog is so bad in Chengdu that in 2013, the city opened a "smog clinic" to help citizens suffering from exposure to air pollution.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/20000-stranded-smog-air-pollution-chengdu-china-10690409.php
And in the U.S., we just elected a President who would like to mothball the EPA.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/26/republican-candidates-donald-trump-eliminate-epa-law-experts
Amid prolonged bickering with his rivals, Donald Trump outlined a fairly radical proposal during Thursday’s Republican debate: to scrap the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Typically there was little policy detail. But it was clear that the EPA – and its $8bn budget – would be on the chopping block should the Republican frontrunner become president.
“Environmental protection – we waste all of this money,” he said. “We’re going to bring that back to the states. We are going to cut many of the agencies, we will balance our budget and we will be dynamic again.”
The promise was an echo of recent statements from Trump on the EPA. He has said there is “tremendous cutting” to be done because the EPA “aren’t doing their job, they are making it impossible for our country to compete”.
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