Beijing to Shut All Major Coal Power Plants to Cut Pollution
I really wish that articles like this would give more context for all the numbers that inevitably get thrown around.<p>> China Huaneng Group Corp.’s 845-megawatt power plant<p>What percent of the city's electricity is that?<p>> Beijing plans to cut annual coal consumption by 13 million metric tons<p>How much less soot will actually be in the air? Will the city feel noticeably cleaner?<p>> China planned to close more than 2,000 smaller coal mines from 2013 to the end of this year<p>How many coal mines does China have?<p>> The level of PM2.5, the small particles that pose the greatest risk to human health, averaged 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter last year in the capital, compared with the national standard of 35.<p>What is considered a safe level? What is considered acceptable in Europe/the US?<p>I know that researching all that would take longer than just throwing up the facts from the press release. But without that context, it's hard to know whether this is really a big deal or just a normal retirement of older power plants for newer, cleaner alternatives.