哈尔滨：遇重污染天气公共交通将免费-新华网

哈尔滨：遇重污染天气公共交通将免费-新华网: "新华网哈尔滨１２月１２日电（记者强勇）哈尔滨市政府近日发布《哈尔滨市重污染天气应急预案》并予以实施，其中规定，当大气污染程度为一级预警时，城市公共交通全部免费乘坐，并实行错时上下班。

　　为提高重污染天气应对能力，哈尔滨市政府成立了重污染天气应急指挥部，分别设立了四级、三级、二级和一级预警。其中，一级预警污染程度最高，预测未来７２小时持续出现严重污染。"

Chinese Carmakers Run Out of Road

Bloomberg: "Roads can accommodate only a certain number of cars before they hit constant gridlock. Beijing's post-2008 stimulus program hasn't helped road building keep pace with the explosion in car registrations. Even at lower rates of growth, demand will probably continue to outstrip capacity. China had just 58 cars per 1,000 people in 2010 versus 797 in the U.S. -- and it already has a bigger middle class, according to Credit Suisse. "

"Cars, public or private, are not the solution [to carbon emissions.]

South China Morning Post: "Such a reduction is only possible through the widespread adoption of public transport such as double-deck buses carrying 138 passengers that occupy only 12 metres of road space versus the same space with two cars carrying eight passengers at best. As with most densely-populated world cities, Hong Kong has a limited amount of road space for the number of users requiring it so it must be used as intelligently and efficiently as possible. Cars, public or private, are not the solution."

This is the vision growth advocates have for the world

Beijing with and without cars

Beijing bans 2.5m cars for 2 weeks to achieve blue sky for parade, vanishes immediately after http://t.co/DXTLxud93T pic.twitter.com/3jo1idBzeb

— gabe klein (@gabe_klein) September 4, 2015

Beijing commuters spend more than half their commute time in a traffic jam

The Jakarta Post: "Commuters in Beijing spent on average 32 minutes per hour in traffic jams while travelling during rush hours, said a report released on Tuesday by AutoNavi Software Co, a mobile web-mapping service provider."

Car-free Central? Hong Kong campaigners want key road reserved for trams and pedestrians

South China Morning Post: "Environmental and urban planning groups are joining hands to press the idea of kicking cars off a key road in Central to reserve it for pedestrians and trams."

Substantial glacier ice loss in Central Asia's largest mountain range

ScienceDaily: "Glaciers in Central Asia experience substantial losses in glacier mass and area. Along the Tien Shan, Central Asia's largest mountain range, glaciers have lost 27% of their mass and 18% of their area during the last 50 years. "

Will China be dragged down by oil wars copying the US?

globeandmail : "Japan called on China on Tuesday to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea close to waters claimed by both nations, concerned that Chinese drills could tap reservoirs that extend into Japanese territory."

The cost of capitalist development, health and the environment

Zero Hedge: "Ill health and chronic disease are undercutting the economic growth everyone is focusing on. Whatever the metric used--hours of labor lost to illness, years of labor lost to early retirement due to ill-health, etc.--the costs of China's environmental damage, disrupted social order and low investment in public health are weighing heavily on output."

China invests USD 3.5B in Brazil oil

Zero Hedge: "With that in mind, we find it somewhat ironic that the China Development Bank (which isn’t the same as the AIIB but which we think might offer some clues as the how the new venture will be run under Beijing’s control), is set to provide $3.5 billion in financing to Brazil’s deeply indebted Petrobras. The new funding comes 6 years after a $10 billion oil export deal between the company and China and just days after Brazil signed up as a founding member of the AIIB. "

China walking into same oil-dependency trap as US

New oil pipeline highlights China’s effort to strengthen energy security - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun: "KYAUKPYU, Myanmar--China has constructed a pipeline to pump crude oil from the Bay of Bengal to southern China through Myanmar as part of an effort to ease its reliance on the pirate-ridden Malacca Strait.

China also constructed a deep-water port in Myanmar so it can annually transport 22 millions tons of crude, the equivalent of 8 percent of China's total oil import in 2013, through the pipeline."

'

Shocking Images Of China's Dire Pollution Problem

Zero Hedge:

Beijing to Moscow in 30 hours -- by train

Zero Hedge : "China will build a 7,000-kilometer (4,350-mile) high-speed rail link from Beijing to Moscow, at a cost of 1.5 trillion yuan ($242 billion), Beijing’s city government said. The rail-link - which will bring travel time between Beijing and Moscow down from 5 days to 30 hours "