Coordinated anti-smog efforts show worth

FOR THE FIRST TIME, more than 60 cities in China's northern regions jointly issued emergency responses to the severe smog over the weekend, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Tuesday:

Albeit a cold front with strong winds has dispersed the smog and the joint response was a welcome move, the environmental protection authorities in the affected cities in seven provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Tianjin as well as Hebei and Shandong provinces, still have important lessons to learn in their joint efforts to deal with airborne pollution.

On the one hand, some enterprises still sought to bypass the restrictions on operations imposed by the emergency responses, doing little to control their emissions of pollutants even when the heavy smog arrived. And some local farmers continued to burn straw, a traditional, yet an environmentally unfriendly way of disposing of it after autumn harvest, although they had been instructed not to do so. They ought to be held accountable for dismissing relevant restrictions.