2008 Olympic Nostalgia In Beijing - It's Not About The Event, It's That The Air Was Briefly Clean

[hatrack]

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The beautiful, sunny days of August 2008 came as a relief to Olympic organisers. But for Beijing residents, they are no more than a happy memory. The political will to push cars off the roads, relocate polluting factories beyond the city and suspend industrial production in nearby provinces went away as fast as world sprint champion Usain Bolt left town.

Five years on, Beijing is notorious for its winter "airpocalypse", when thick and choking smog lingers in grey skies for months, only eased by occasional strong wind and rain. Most newcomers develop the "Beijing cough", a dry cough and itchy throat, usually between December and April.

In the first half of this year, according to official statistics, Beijing's air quality was deemed safe on fewer than 40 per cent of days - and that is based on mainland standards, not on more stringent levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. "Beijing's fast degradation of air quality since 2008 … has evolved into a public crisis, as more people worry about the pollution's health impact," says Li Yan of Greenpeace East Asia.

EDIT

Nearly ten months ahead of the Games, many factories in six provinces around Beijing were ordered to close down or partly halt production, senior officials from the environment ministry said. That came in addition to Beijing's efforts to move polluting factories - including a large iron and steel plant. "The whole of northern China was making sacrifices for Beijing before and during the Games, but it was unrealistic, or simply not legitimate, for temporary measures to be sustained," Li said.

EDIt

Yes, so unrealistic, so not legitimate. Please note the photographs at the link below and just imagine the flavor of the air you can see, the fruits of realism, the taste of legitimacy.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1295644/pollution-free-days-beijing-olympics-now-just-happy-memory

[gtar100]

1. Good thing that pollution stays in China or it might start to affect the air quality

around the world. Sad for China. I'm just glad the air gets filtered at the borders (actually that filter is only in the minds of capitalists).

Seriously, this is an extreme case of "careful what you wish for". The PTB in China wanted the capital, wanted the industries, were willing to exploit their people. They got it. Pollution is inevitable and they got it in spades. Will it cripple or kill them in the end? It's certainly doing that now. Where is the breaking point?

I hope they find a *real* solution and not one tainted with cover-up and greed. The usual "solutions" of capitalists typically are. Unfortunately the effect this is having on people isn't enough to move them. Not until it effects their bottom line will they do anything and that will be their barometer on the effectiveness of their measures, not the quality of life for the people who are stuck in their hellhole. Let's hope the purists in the Communist party there (are there any?) take up the cause of bettering the culture again. What good is a deep, rich cultural history and having amazingly smart and intelligent people when you are killing them off with poisoned air and water?

Pray for China to wake up from this mess and that the solutions they do find are applicable everywhere polluters are destroying our ecosystem. Because just moving the factory out of the neighborhood is not a fix, it's only pushing the problem onto somebody else and delaying the inevitable outcome of killing us all in the end.