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.'"

Comments

Just now?

[IronWilliamCash]

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.

Re:Just now?

[HairyCanary]

Actually, I'm glad they are working so hard. At this point it's way too late to save their image. Even if they cut the pollution to zero for the Olympics it will be a hot topic. Every day on the news we hear about how hard they're working to solve the problem, and we get bombarded with pictures of how bad the situation is. China's pollution needed to be exposed to the world, now it is.

Re:Just now?

[barzok]

They should try to solve the problem permanently instead of suppressing it so others think it's livable over there.

They aren't doing it for image purposes, to make people think that "it's livable over there."

They're doing it because they've been told that events will be postponed or canceled to protect the health of the athletes if the air quality is poor.

Which, yes, could ultimately come back to their image, but really it's about the money & what happens if scheduled events have to be canceled.

Re:Just now?

[initdeep]

and most of that air quality has to do with the coal power plants which run with no emission controls like other countries have.

they haven't, and are not, going to change that.

it's something they have literally hundreds of years of supply, and something they can get for next to nothing in the way of costs, unlike oil based products which they have to import.

and they aren't interested in spending money on economically friendly "alternative" energy sources that wouldn't supply 1% of their needs when they can again, spend next to nothing (including wages and other costs) to just use something they have.
COAL.

Re:Just now?

[initdeep]

it has been for years.

witness the very reason the kyoto protocol treaty was not ratified by the US despite a cetain person's desire.

it was bullshit.

and now everyone knows it.

and the biggest reason it was bullshit was because china and india weren't going to be held accountable for their actions.

and the "Developed" countries were, yet they already have in place protocols to limit their emissions.

amazing how it comes full circle.

Re:Just now?

[Ced_Ex]

Granted China may be the single largest user of coal power, however, if you consider the pollution on a per person basis, the Chinese are polluting far less than most developed nations.

I know for a fact, that Canadians are one of the most wasteful users of water, and the reason is because we have a lot and take fresh clean water for granted.

Perhaps before we start pointing fingers, we should start with ourselves and set better examples?

Re:Just now?

[Alzheimers]

The US: We're not over-polluting, we're under-overpopulated!

Re:Just now?

[Arccot]

then why dont they just sign onto the kyoto protocol at the same level that other developed (read the united states) countries are supposed to.

oh wait.......

China is the single largest user of coal power and also the single dirtiest and most unsafe user as well.

the average death rate for chinese coal workers is more than 10/day iirc.

They're also a massive manufacturing center and exporting superpower. It's easy to tell China to shape up, when the only reason wealthy Western countries are relatively cleaner is because they outsource most dirty manufacturing to China.

Just like a 10 year old...

[EmagGeek]

When mom comes around saying he can go play when his room is clean, he frantically shoves the mess into the closet...

uh, wtf?

[pak9rabid]

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.

Re:uh, wtf?

[ivan256]

I'm pretty sure that the location was chosen using the time honored political methods...

In other words, it was picked based on which locality was willing to bribe the judges the most, while at the same time having the best means with which to hide the bribes, or make them look legitimate.

Re:Environmental Wackos

[Red Flayer]

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.

Re:Environmental Wackos

[Anonymous Coward]

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!".

Western world's creation

[failedlogic]

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.

Re:Environmental Wackos

[Romancer]

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.