Clearing the Air

Mrs. Lawhawk made a most cogent point about the Chinese efforts to clear the air in Beijing for the Olympics.

Smog returned to Beijing's skies on Monday, despite claims by Chinese officials that drastic anti-pollution measures had slashed the chances of Olympic events having to be rescheduled.

The familiar murky air seen in the capital reduced visibility to a few hundred metres (yards) just four days before the Olympic opening ceremony.

The poor air followed three days of blue skies, that had led Chinese officials to trumpet the success of drastic anti-pollution measures.

The Chinese measures are only temporary.

The Chinese government is engaging in draconian measures to limit pollution - shutting down thousands of factories and power plants for weeks on end and is even considering banning 90% of cars from driving in Beijing during the Games.

So, what happens once the cheering at the Bird's Nest ends? The smog will return, worse than ever, and the factories will once again resume belching all manner of pollutants into the air.

How exactly is that an improvement? The Chinese are simply putting a band aid on an environmental nightmare and no one bothers to call them on it. The media would rather focus on the extraordinary efforts that the Chinese are going to in order to make the skies clear for the Games, but few are focusing on what will happen the moment the Olympic torch goes out.

The Chinese cannot shut down thousands of factories and power plants permanently because it would throw the Chinese economy into chaos and the Chinese government needs the economy to remain robust to keep whatever criticism that has spread about the government to a minimum.

So, while the Chinese will pray for clear air for the Games, everyone should be focusing on what will happen the next day and what the Chinese (and everyone else around the globe) will be breathing. That means you folks in Los Angeles will see your skies smog over as much as 25% of your pollution is not produced locally, but floating over from China.

Their pollution mess becomes our pollution mess, and it doesn't matter what we have accomplished because it will negated by what China does.

UPDATE:
So, what will China do after the Olympics? It will monitor the pollution levels. Eventually:

"We should be able to start regular monitoring of ozone and PM2.5 (particle matter) next year, which would lead to measures to deal with them," Fan told a press conference.

He was speaking in response to reports that China's environmental authorities had failed to include fine particles and ozone into their pollution measurements, causing ignorance of health damage caused by the pollutants.

Fine particles, known as PM2.5, are tiny solid particles of 2.5micrometers in diameter and smaller. Health experts believe they are unhealthy to breathe and have been associated with fatal illnesses and other serious health problems.