File talk:Beijing smog comparison August 2005.png

Is high humidity the culprit here or pollution? In such climates, the same poor visibility can be apparent in the countryside, with no nearby industry! I question whether this image depicts what it purports! The colour does suggest some pollution to my untrained eyes, but its proportion (vs humidity) is not clear. This article about the Beijing olympics [1] points out such a confusion. Preconceptions affect judgement. To quote from the article, "The fog is generated by heavy humidity rather than skyrocketing levels of pollution, according to COC climatologist Doug Charko.... If you were on a tropical island with the best air quality, you'd get that hazy appearance because of the humidity."

I was there, and it was horrific pollution that Beijing is so well known for. --Bobak (talk) 06:40, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

I find it hard to believe that if it was the result of pollution, there would be such a variation in smog levels. One day looks great, the next looks terrible? Smog output of that level would likely be constant, not variable. I find it much more likely that it is actually fog, brought about at such levels by the cities heat (from cars, buildings, etc), colliding with the cool air during the rains which you mentioned were occurring when the picture was taken. Elevated humidity brought about by 48 hours of intermittent rain would also increase the fog density. Yes, air pollution is a concern in Beijing, but this picture is very misleading to the degree of it. LiamSP (talk) 14:09, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Edit/Photoshop

Did you edit the color tones and brightness balancing of the pictures? Especially the one on the left - it looks like it has been brightened. 115.64.132.128 (talk) 13:00, 9 July 2010 (UTC)