日韩午夜精品视频,欧美私密网站,国产一区二区三区四区,国产主播一区二区三区四区

Home / English Column / Environment / Environment -- What's New Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read
Choked Hong Kong Fights for Better Air
Adjust font size:

Hong Kong is famous for its harbor scenery, green mountains and blue sky, but they are now giving way to heavy smog, which not only choked the city but also made colors faded into a depressed grey.

The Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong said Tuesday that 23 pollution convictions were recorded in February and more than half of the convictions were under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

According to the Friends of the Earth, an environment protecting organization, the number of low visibility days at the Hong Kong International Airport, where tourists get the first impression of the city, reached a record high last year. And the number of clear days in the downtown area is even less.

Emissions of vehicles and power plants, as well as pollutants from the Pearl River Delta are considered the main reasons for the bad air of the city.

A survey published by Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Lung Foundation said that 30 percent of elderly citizens over the age of 70 complained about respiratory problems in 2003 because of bad air, compared with 4.9 percent in 1991. The percentage has risen six times within 12 years.

Respiratory experts have called on the government to take immediate measures in air pollution control, including a smoking ban in all catering services by 2007, the most difficult part for Hong Kong's long delayed dream of smoke free.

More experts are concerned that the severe air pollution will not only harm the health of the public but also damage the image of Hong Kong's tourism industry, an important source of revenue for the city.

Friends of the Earth said it has interviewed 129 tour guides between March 8 and 10, during which half of the interviewees rated the air quality of Hong Kong as either severe or very severe and nearly 40 percent said tourists had complained about air pollution.

A spokesman for Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department said Monday that the government is determined to achieve the emission targets by cooperation with neighboring Guangdong Province.

The governments of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong have agreed to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), respirable suspended particulates (RSP) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 40 percent, 20 percent, 55 percent and 55 percent, respectively by the year of 2010.

For the electricity generation, the biggest source of air pollution in Hong Kong, the Department has asked power companies to accelerate emission reduction projects, increase the use of ultra-low sulfur coal and use natural gas for power generation as much as possible.

Meanwhile, a large scale of educational campaign of anti-smoke is launched this month in catering service industry in order to reach the target of eliminating smoking in all catering places in Hong Kong by the year of 2007.

The Department also planned to pursue additional measures in its struggle for better air, such as introducing Euro IV emission standards to newly-registered vehicles.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2006)

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Read

Related Stories
HK Govt Pledges to Upgrade Air Quality
Gov't Rules Out Curbs on Low-emission Cars
New Rules to Deal with Auto Pollution
Guangdong to Tackle Dust
Euro III in the Pipeline
China Adopts Euro II Auto Emission Standards
 
SiteMap | About Us | RSS | Newsletter | Feedback
SEARCH THIS SITE
Copyright ? China.org.cn. All Rights Reserved ????E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-88828000 京ICP證 040089號
主站蜘蛛池模板: 敦化市| 钟山县| 临沭县| 志丹县| 蕉岭县| 简阳市| 左权县| 阿拉善盟| 观塘区| 莱芜市| 神农架林区| 内黄县| 远安县| 武隆县| 太保市| 腾冲县| 鹤峰县| 连云港市| 呼和浩特市| 郑州市| 油尖旺区| 三原县| 河北省| 凤山县| 宁南县| 滦南县| 莫力| 西丰县| 南通市| 高台县| 大方县| 正宁县| 镇远县| 定陶县| 辰溪县| 明溪县| 玛多县| 滕州市| 陇川县| 建阳市| 乌苏市|