Oded Balilty/Associated Press
Beijing residents in Tiananmen Square, used to pea-soup smog, ignored a citywide stay-indoors warning on Thursday.
Audio Slide Show: China’s Industrial Revolution
Posted on 12/29/2007 11:21:26 PM PST by neverdem
BEIJING — Every day, monitoring stations across the city measure air pollution to determine if the skies above this national capital can officially be designated blue. It is not an act of whimsy: with Beijing preparing to play host to the 2008 Olympic Games, the official Blue Sky ratings are the city’s own measuring stick for how well it is cleaning up its polluted air.
Thursday did not bring good news. The gray, acrid skies rated an eye-reddening 421 on a scale of 500, with 500 being the worst. Friday rated 500. Both days far exceeded pollution levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization. In Beijing, officials warned residents to stay indoors until Saturday, but residents here are accustomed to breathing foul air. One man flew a kite in Tiananmen Square.
For Beijing officials, Thursday was especially depressing because the city was hoping to celebrate an environmental victory. In recent years, Beijing has steadily increased its Blue Sky days. The city needs one more, defined as scoring below 101, to reach its goal of 245 Blue Sky days this year. These improving ratings are how Beijing hopes to reassure the world that Olympic athletes will not be gasping for breath next August.
“We’re definitely hoping for the best,” said Jon Kolb, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee, “but preparing for the worst.”
For the world’s Olympians, Beijing’s air is a performance issue. The concern is that respiratory problems could impede athletic performance and prevent records from being broken. For the city’s estimated 12 million residents, pollution is an inescapable health and quality-of-life issue. Skepticism about the validity of the Blue Sky ratings is common. Moreover, the concern is whether the city can clean itself up long after the Games are over.
Beijing has long ranked as one of...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Not having to guarantee due process and being able to shoot the extended family of anyone they deem “polluting” a month before the event should help, I imagine.
OMG, that’s worse than smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day!
The athletes better take their own food if the Chi-coms will allow it.
That is an easy problem to solve. Move everyone out of Beiing and shut down all power, including transportation. To be truly environmentally friendly we should all vacate the planet.
No, buy an energy efficient bulb because it saves you money on your electric bills. It also makes Hugo Chavez cry.
2007 Beijing looks like 1880s London.
And only 4% of Beijing residents have cars...
I think the great thinkers in China will just blow blue aerosol paint out of the smokestacks - voila! blue skies!
This article proves how serious the Chinese take the CO2 pollution problem.
Oh wait....
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