Organizing Life Around PM2.5 Went Mainstream

Throughout the year, PM2.5 was so consistently high that the measurement “entered into mainstream Chinese life,” as Angela Hsu, a doctoral candidate at Yale University, told The Guardian. Hsu’s research of Chinese social media site Sina Weibo found that the term “PM 2.5″ went from 200 mentions in January 2011 to 3 million in January 2013. 

It became fashionable for Sina Weibo users to share photos of themselves protecting their lungs:

Link to the article the Atlantic
2013 China - The Year of Smog

Highlights from the article

• Air quality in the Chinese cities
• Air pollution cause medical emergencies
• Buildings disappeared
• Chinese tried everything to fight the pollution
• Air pollution's economic toll became more obvious
• The Government finally decided to do something
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