With promises of blue skies and an uncensored Internet, will Chinese citizens not begin to wonder what the fuss is all about? why their cars are being banned and their factories relocated?
With only six days to go before the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, one may notice the tremendous amount of information in the media concerning air pollution in the world's most populated country. China has been heavily scrutinized and criticized for the inaction leading up to the Games and their apathetic attitude toward pollution and environmental management on a country-wide scale.
So China did what any other government would do in the same situation. Ban cars, relocate factories, and
plant trees.
Last year in Beijing, 800,000 cars were kept off the road for three days, which led to a drastic
40% reduction in pollution.
What the scientists found was a quick return of air pollution to normal levels just as soon as those vehicles were reintroduced to the streets. Data was collected and analyzed by NASA's Aura for this brief pre-Olympic experiment. Knowing the outcome of this experiment, why did the Chinese government wait so long to pull cars off the road in preparation for the Olympics if they have been so strongly concerned about public perception of the country's pollution problems, going well back before this 2007 event? Given the seven years China has had to prepare for the Olympics, why weren't more moderate measures taken along the way in an attempt to prevent such a drastic last-minute endeavour?
Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), even praised China earlier this year for their efforts saying
I can't hide the fact that there is today a danger of atmospheric pollution in Beijing, but our Chinese friends are doing tremendous efforts to reduce this.
Here we stand, six months following Rogge's comments, and the results just are not that compelling. China has recorded 151 days of "fairly good air quality" or just
18 more days than the previous year. It has even been
reported that China has spent $17 billion USD to bring air quality up over previous years. That could potentially work out to an astonishing $112+ million USD per day for a "fairly good day" and data for good or better quality days is unreported.
It is unfortunate the IOC appears to be pleased with these results. This was a fantastic opportunity to see major environmental changes implemented in China to meet practical and attainable standards in the interest of sustainability over the long-term. Rather, in three weeks' time, those affected daily by smog and pollution in China will resume their daily coal-powered lives.
