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China Races To Clean Up Olympic Air
Hugh Pickens writes "With the Olympics due to start in less than three weeks, Beijing is cranking up antipollution measures by yanking cars off the roads, expanding mass transit and staggering work hours in a bid to meet its pledge of a 'green' Olympics. Beijing has gone on a spending spree, relocating factories, seeding clouds, retiring old vehicles, planting millions of trees and halting building construction amid concerns that athletes and visitors could suffer breathing problems. For the next two months, owners of 3.3 million private cars can drive only on alternate days in China's capital, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd. Environmental and sports performance experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the measures taken so far. 'Arguably these are all short-term measures, just designed to control air quality for the time when the Olympics are on,' says Dr Andy Jones. Dr Angus Hunter warned that athletes are at risk for low performance if the air quality cannot be brought down to acceptable levels. 'Average times could be lower and the chances of records being broken become less. It's a bit like trying to exercise in a room when the gym is full of smokers.'"
If only they would do this for the right reasons... They'll be cleaning up for the olympics but it will all go back to hell as soon as it's over. They should try to solve the problem permanently instead of suppressing it so others think it's livable over there.
Shouldn't that be "athletes are at risk for low performance if the air quality cannot be brought up to acceptable levels"?
When mom comes around saying he can go play when his room is clean, he frantically shoves the mess into the closet...
athletes are at risk for low performance if the air quality cannot be brought down to acceptable levels
Uh..call me crazy, but shouldn't this have been something that should have been taken into serious consideration before choosing a place like this for the Olympics? I mean, I may not be an expert on human physiology, but it would seem to me that having clean air for the Olympic competitors to breathe would have ranked among one of the highest in the checklist for selecting a location for the Olympics.
I don't understand why China was even considered for a place to have the Olympics let alone how they won that bid.
They [the government] don't care about their people or the environment treating both like trash.
China is the one of the worst, if not THE WORST environmental disasters this world has ever had. They are having one HELL of a time trying to clean up the mess they've created for themselves.
At least they seem to be acknowledging the problem for once.
It's not much, but it's a start.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I agree with you in general regarding China's pollution problem, but the racist overtones (Egg Foo Young?) are unnecessary.
That said, maybe if you look back at the industrial revolution in "cleaner" countries, we were just as bad. Read accounts of Liverpool in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Or how about chemical pollution in the US until the 1970s?
China's position on pollution is no different than what other countries went through... the difference is just one of scale.
This does not mean that China's attitude towards pollution is any more tenable, but it helps if we consider the processes by which other countries cleaned up their acts. Of note, grassroots support for a cleaner environment is problematic in China, given their political system, and the ease by which laws can be overlooked.
But it doesn't reflect well on Americans (or other Westerners) to chastise China while ignoring our own sordid past.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
But it doesn't reflect well on Americans (or other Westerners) to chastise China while ignoring our own sordid past.
You'd think they might have taken a look at our sordid past and learned to do things in a more sane way. In stead they took a look at our (westerners) sordid past and thought: "Hell, if they could do it so can we... times ten!".
Its fine and fair to blame the Chinese government for not bringing up tougher industrial anto-pollution laws. We are also being narrow-minded in saying this is alll a Chinese problem.
The Western world has made China one giant production facility. All the really toxic production facilities - PCBs, paper (increasingly), steel and other metals, etc. are all being made in China. And they're making our clothes, food (which I *dont* buy), and so on. The shipping yards in China are the largest in the world for good reason.
I'm buying made in the USA or Canada - first, less pollution in transportation, saves jobs, and (should) be higher quality and safer.
China is overpopulated, yes, and thats a problem they (and we all have) to work to solve. Even if they had reduced pollution say by even 80% over the last decade, there's still too much being produced and too many people. We'd still have a problem.
I don't think for many reasons it was wise of IOC to approve China. Living in the city of the host of the next Games, development ain't all that environmentally friendly either. Sea-Sky highway being one of them.
For the next two months, owners of 3.3 million private cars can drive only on alternate days in China's capital, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd.
Mexico tried the whole "even or odd" license plate thing a while back (for similar reasons) and it was an epic failure.
People either bought another car, usually an older, more-polluting model, or just ignored the law. The result was that Mexico's air quality got WORSE from trying to restrict vehicles on the road because most 2nd (or 3rd) cars that were being purchased were older models with almost no pollution control equipment and higher fuel consumption.
I don't know what it takes to buy a car in China, or how the government regulates license plate numbers, but if it's in any way similar to Mexico, this will fail too.
Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.
Dude, racist?
"EGG" Foo Young on their face... as in Egg on their face. As in Mr T pitties the FOO that doesn't get a bit of localization in a bad pun. There's nothing racist about that remark that you didn't put there yourself. It's a joke that does not demean them as a race, or even say that they exibit stereotypical behavior. Just that they live in a region that introduced a type of cuisine. he did not even include the more typical dog ingredient jokes for the eastern nations that are much more typical of the belittling by mainstream comedians.
I kinda take offence when people try to make general comments racist. If you stopped and thought about the whole racist issue you would find it disturbing that members of most races can use phrases and words that they do not allow other races to use without calling them racist. Isn't that the definition of racist? Treating a race differently because of their race? Allowing them to do something or forbiding them from something else based solely on their race? If we all kinda got the chip off our shoulders and let these comments go, the words would lose their power and that would be the end of at least a part of the problems we all face every day.
The actions, are a different story of course and I acknowledge that, but the reaction to general comments are sometimes showing of more racist thoughts than the comments themselves.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
Call me crazy, but couldn't this "cat culling" cause a surge in the cities rat population?
Umm, perhaps it just isn't offensive at all and the Chinese can judge for themselves if they find it so instead of you somehow policing it for them.
In the last fifty years or so we've made great strides in terms of racism, prejudice, and solving injustices for various groups - but it has tipped past the point of rationality. Now everyone's ego and self-esteem is some fragile, gossamer shell waiting to be broken by the smallest slight, the barest hint of negativity.
I am sorry, but we've become a society of wusses. We should be able to poke fun at people (and yes, even groups of them) when the intent is not evil. We should be able to spank our children when they don't act appropriately. We should be able to give awards to the winners and not to the losers. We should make people responsible for their own actions.
I'm really appreciative of all that we have today and the progress we've made, but I'm also very ashamed of some of the things we've lost.
Because they could actually put in place the infrastructure in time. Look at it, they have basically built one of the largest airports in the world in the last few years, built all the olympic venues and buildings needed... (most olympics only build a few buildings, and use existing ones for events when they can). They have built hotels, highways, light rail (from the new airport to downtown) and all sorts of infrastructure in a short time frame. Its pretty impressive what you can do when you have the political will, and a lack of environmental concerns, and don't care what the people think...
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
However, I would say that waaaay more than two pictures are needed in order to compare air quality. ... you got the picture.
Just imagine how can change current conditions the presence of clouds, high winds, fog, temperature, working/non working days,
Pumbaa! I don't wonder; I know.
The racist overtones (Egg Foo Young?) are unnecessary.
Well, being that the common expression is "egg on their face", and "egg foo young" is a common dish at a Chinese restaurant, it seems more an attempt at humour than racism.
Which western country are you speaking of? The US ?
We have some of the strictest laws in place, thank you very much. So much restriction that we've lost all of our manufacturing to places like Mexico and China that don't have such restrictions in place.
Could we do better? Sure! However we are leading, where many places aren't following because it is economically advantageous not to follow.
What is more disturbing however is the whole "Blame America First" crap that you seem to subscribe to. People like you are idiots and tools against real reform, because you can't give credit where it is due.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
And if you go to the Olympics, you may want to avoid the "chicken"...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...