Seeing Is Believing

The IOC and the Chinese government are spinning furiously trying to claim that the air in Beijing will be acceptable in time for the summer Olympics, which is just days away from kicking off.

The photos from Beijing suggest that all is not well in the Communist paradise.

The IOC claims that the photo and the conditions are due more to mist than to smog and particulates, but unless the IOC comes clean and divulges the results of air samples, all you have to go on is your eyes - and I think your eyes would probably burn something fierce without having eye protection and eye drops.

Here's what the sky looked like at the Athens Olympics. Lots of blue skies, and no smog present, either before events or during them.

Here's what the sky looked like during the Atlanta Olympics, from multiple sources. Again, no signs of smog or pollutants there.

The IOC appears to be covering for the Chinese government especially if they could be putting athletes' health at risk. The IOC got itself into this mess by giving the Olympics to China, and now they don't want to offend the Chinese because the conditions aren't quite right. If the athletes can't compete at peak performance because they can't breath as easily as they would at other venues, it will affect the number of record setting performances and the quality of competition will also suffer.

The Chinese have tried every trick in the book to clear the air of smog and pollution, but they've fallen short. Seeding clouds to force rain to wash the pollutants out of the air has been contemplated, and the government has closed factories, businesses, and power plants upwind to reduce pollution, and are going to ban many vehicles in Beijing as well.

It may not be enough.

UPDATE 7/28/2008:
The Chinese government and IOC are continuing with the excuses. They're trying to blame the ongoing smog situation on fog as though that alone is the reason skies in China are hazardous to one's health.



The government is also going to ban 90% of cars in Beijing in an attempt to improve air quality. Right. I think they might need to shutter 90% of factories upwind, and demand that tens of millions of people cease cooking with charcoal for the next few weeks to improve air quality.