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

Chairman Mao says take the bus!

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be such a neat ad campaign. You could show Mao smiling as he holds a bus pass. I think it would work well in California too.

Re:Chairman Mao says take the bus!

[4D6963]

You're aware he's been dead for over 30 years, are you? Not only would the credibility of "Chairman Mao says" be quite impacted by this fact, but also I'm afraid the photo on the ad wouldn't look so glamorous. On the other hand you'd be guaranteed he'd make the largest smile he's ever made on a photo.

Re:Chairman Mao says take the bus!

[bersl2]

Such propoganda posters are often artistic works, not photographs.

Re:Chairman Mao says take the bus!

[H0p313ss]

woooosh!

Ha! The whoosh is on you! My post was a joke.

For small values of joke.

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?

[DriedClexler]

I apologize profusely for not posting this in a more relevant spot, and for not finding where I originally heard this suggested, but, one interesting theory is that the reason for this nearly doubling of oil prices in the past year is that China is stockpiling it to run diesel instead of coal plants, so as to clean up their air for the olympics.

Considering how inscrutable these recent price increases have been, this one seems really good at explaining things. Just a thought.

For now, check out item 3 from a while ago, which mentions China trying to clean up for the Olympic games, and how they're importing more diesel.

Re:Just now?

[Anonymous Coward]

They've spent a fortune relocating factories including one of the world's biggest steelworks. They are not going to spend a fortune moving them all back again. They are not going to close the new metro lines. Even some of the temporary measures may have long term effects; people using the new transport networks while their cars are banned may switch permanently. This isn't just window dressing.

That said, I returned from Beijing a week ago and the smog is terrible. I still have a very nasty cough. Though the air quality is much improved, it's still rubbish.

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?

[Hoi Polloi]

The residents of Beijing just need to inhale deeply just before the games end and hold it for the rest of their lives.

Problem solved!

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?

[drinkypoo]

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

I hate to break it to you, but at least in the US the average coal plant is way over the allowable limit of emissions. We can find out-of-compliance coal plants in the US as fast as we can secure money to send people up smokestacks to check emissions. I know one person formerly in the stack-sniffing business with whom I have discussed the situation (among others) and it's very, very dirty.

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.

The overall cost of burning fossil fuels is much higher than they think. Cancer rates doubled in the industrial revolution.

China isn't really known for paying its laborers fairly anyway, I'm sure they could do solar and wind quite cheaply. They are working on bringing up wind power, but not as hard as they're working on coal.

Re:Just now?

[nomadic]

if you consider the pollution on a per person basis, the Chinese are polluting far less than most developed nations.

When you're talking about a finite resource like clean air, a per capita analysis is worthless, the total effect is what's important. China has 1 billion+ people.

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.

Environmental Wackos

[Archangel Michael]

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.

By the time the Olympics comes around, I hope that the Chineese government has enough Egg Foo Young on their face to cause them to loose face to the whole world.

Then maybe, just maybe they'll clean up their act. Naaaa, what I am thinking.

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!".

Re:Environmental Wackos

[mcwidget]

Living the the US is barely tolerable and people die constantly

Gee, that is bad. Over here in the UK, people only die once.

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.

Shutting Down PCB Factories

[Anonymous Coward]

Just got an email from my PCB Fabrication house :

"For our Printed Circuit Board customers using Chinese vendors, please be aware of the following air quality policy announcement from Chinese authorities:

In preparation for the Olympics, China has announced a factory shutdown for 9 weeks to clear smog and improve air quality in a 200 kilometer radius of Beijing. The shutdown begins July 17th and will extend until September 20th. Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces are affected by the shutdown.

If air quality does not improve before the start of the Olympics, there may be an expansion of the shutdown. There are concerns there could also be a bottleneck at two main ports. "

Wonder how it will affect Chip prices

Re:Shutting Down PCB Factories

[RichMan]

Big chip production is done off shore in Taiwan. Not affected. And a lot more around Shanghai. Not affected.

Page 10 of document with world map of IC plants
does not show an FABs around Beijing in 2005.

IC fabrication does not have a big supply chain. Just sand and rare elements as inputs.

PCB and product manufacturing can be expected to be hit in strange ways. There are product paths, for connectors, cable assemblies, etc, that no one really understands that could be going through the affected area.

Re:American athletes should not wear masks.

[courtarro]

If the whole world sees American athletes dressed up with goofy masks, they will see the USA as a bunch of sissies, especially if the Chinese -don't-.

Yeah, 'cause real men get pollution-related lung cancer!

Yeah...

[Otter]

"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.

Ummm, no kidding? What does he mean, "arguably"? It's like how Athens temporarily incarcerated the city's thousands of stray dogs and then turned them all loose when the Games ended.

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...

Re:Black wind

[the_other_chewey]

But how are they going to stop the sand storms coming from Mongolia?

50 million chinese blowing the other way.

Danger Will Robinson

[RichMan]

It will be interesting how this will play out in the social/economical dynamics of China.

Will the employees be paid during the shutdown?

Have downstream manufactures in other areas made provisions to get alternate input sources?

Will there be any unexpected interruptions in the supply chain? Either domestic consumption or export goods.

If downstream factories in other areas have to shutdown there will not be government support, there will be unhappy workers.

Having unhappy idle workers while the government is telling everyone to be happy about the Olympics is not a good thing.

Also if US orders for Christmas are down because of US domestic fears then some idled factories might not find it easy to restart.

A CITY WALL!

[GameboyRMH]

NOW I GOTTA BUILD CITY WALL TO KEEP CITY BUILDINGS CLEAN OR CITY PEOPLE GONNA COMPLAIN! GODDAMN MONGORIANS!!!

(string of text to get around caps filter, asdfbvukavfkavukabuywerbvfyabsvsdbfjkdhafbukaddfbwdfghweynetuakfukyvbuaaaf)

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:License plates

[Deadstick]

Sucks for the guys whose plates end with a zero.

...and who flunked math.

rj

Non-sports stuff more interesting than the event

[denis-The-menace]

I usually hate following the Olympic because it's such a bore.
This year, all the stuff "around" the competition is WAY more interesting:
-How many people will be arrested for silly things?
-Will the athletes choke on the smog?
-Will anything be allowed to be broadcasted out of China?
-How many Chinese will try to defect?
-And of course: The badly translated sign of the day.

I don't think leaders of China will be able to stand have a spot light on them for the full 2 weeks. Imagine the fallout from regular Chinese people getting unfiltered news from the mouths of so many non-controlled people!

gym full of smokers

[oliverthered]

well it depends on what their smoking, a bit of crack/crystal meth or pcp may actually give them a boost.

I'm all for setting up this alternative drugie Olympics, if altitude training is ok, or lifting weights then why not a crack pipe.

Space Vacuum

[lymond01]

With people considering a space elevator, why not consider a space vacuum cleaner? A long tube with one end in space and the other split like, say, a flying spaghetti monster, with multiple ends to suck up particulates. And little dogs.

Atlanta Olympics

[Frankie70]

Happens in every olympics.

During the Atlanta Olympics, many homeless people were taken for a bus ride to different part of the state.
Many of the homeless were jailed for silly offenses.

http://www.straight.com/olympic-cities-punish-poor

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.

Not as doubtful as you'd think

[LS]

There seems to be a lot of incredulity about Beijing's ability to clean up for the Olympics, but you are all forgetting that the government here is doesn't have the same limitations of a democracy, and can implement massive policy changes immediately. There are shutting down over 350 (!) factories down here, and have taken 60% of the cars off of the road. Most construction has stopped. I was here on Sunday, the first day this process went into effect, and we had a brilliant blue sky. Things are a little hazy again today, but they're not done shutting down everything yet. Expect a relatively pollution free Olympics. Sorry to rain on your hate parade guys. This is only a temporary solution though, which is amazing considering they spent 40 billion on infrastructure change to support the cleanup effort.

LS

Blog from a guy in China with pictures

[Matt Perry]

I've been reading this guy's blog off and on because he's posting pictures of the air quality. Compare this picture with this one to see what difference is being made.

Re:Didn't they learn from Mexico??

[xtracto]

Mexico tried the whole "even or odd" license plate thing a while back (for similar reasons) and it was an epic failure.

Uuuh, as far as I know (asking to my relatives living in Mexico D.F.) the "hoy no circula" program is still going on strong in Mexico City, moreover, the program has just been extended for Saturdays (since July 5).

Saying that it didn't work is a big claim. Granted, some people bought another car, however that is not very common, given the general population does not earn enough money to buy a second car.

And moreover, the IMECA (Metropolitan Index of the Quality of Air, used to monitor the pollution in Mexico City) or AIQ (nowadays between 50 and 70) is not as high as it used to be say, 10 years ago when it usually was between 80 and 110...

You can check it from yourself, all the yearly data for Mexico City atmospheric conditions can be obtained from here.