Beijing Choked by Worst Air Pollution in More Than a Year

Beijing is suffering through its worst bout of air pollution in nearly two years as a sandstorm in northern China fills the capital’s skies with dust.

Beijing’s official air quality index hit its maximum level of 500 on Monday, and the US Embassy in the city recorded its highest pollution levels since May 2021. Citizens were told to stay indoors, though many were already avoiding crowded places amid a severe Covid outbreak.

The pollution is largely caused by sandstorms in Inner Mongolia, which have kicked up dust across several provinces. While sandstorms aren’t rare in Beijing, which sits near the Gobi Desert, they usually don’t occur in the winter, when cold temperatures keep dust frozen in the soil. This is the latest time of year that Beijing has issued a sandstorm warning since 2015, China Weather Network reported.

Deforestation and drought are at least partly to blame for the dust storms that plague northern China. The government has launched massive tree-planting projects to try to curb the dust since the 1970s. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program, which protects regions affected by sandstorms sweeping out of the Gobi Desert, aims to grow new trees on 35 million hectares (87 million acres) by 2050.

The number of days with heavy dust in the air in Beijing has fallen by about 70% since the 1960s and 1970s, according to the China Weather Network report.