Dirtiest Air in the World..will soon be cleaner, for a while..It is all about money, of course.

[Stuart G]

updated 5:29 p.m. CT, Mon., April. 14, 2008

Beijing to shut factories in bid to cut pollution
City to halt construction, impose driving, painting bans for Olympics


BEIJING - Construction will halt, heavy industries will close, and even spray painting will stop in order to clean Beijing’s polluted air for the Olympics — an issue that suddenly has taken a back seat to political protests.

An aggressive plan to temporarily shutter belching steel and chemical plants, cut back emissions by 30 percent at 19 heavy-polluting companies and stop excavation and pouring of concrete at hundreds of sites around the city was explained Monday by the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau.

“From the suggestions of experts we think that we need to take these measures to guarantee the air quality of Beijing,” said Du Shaozhong, the bureau’s deputy director.

The measures are severe and will be in effect officially for two months — July 20-Sept. 20 — although reports a few months ago suggest some production cutbacks may come even sooner.

Officials also are expected to ban about half of Beijing’s 3.3 million vehicles for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. Du said specific details would be announced later.

A month ago, pollution looked like the biggest threat to the Olympics, which are supposed to mark the emergence of China as an economic and political power. Since then, deadly riots in Lhasa have triggered worldwide demonstrations by pro-Tibet and human rights groups, threatening the country’s image on a stage it has spent billions to build.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24105928/