Monday, July 28, 2008

Black Eye On Beijing

Despite efforts to curtail air pollution in China's capital ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, it's still there.

Less than two weeks before the Olympics, Beijing's skies are so murky and polluted that the authorities are considering emergency measures during the Games beyond the traffic restrictions and factory shutdowns that, so far, have failed to clear the air, state media reported on Monday.

For the past five days, Beijing has been a soupy cauldron of humid, gray skies. Local pollution ratings have exceeded the national standard for acceptable air since last Thursday, despite a temporary air pollution control plan that began on July 20.


Looking at the picture on the other end of the link, tells more of the story than any words can.

The thing that stands out to me is a pretty morbid detail that we need to watch out for: The people with titles, offices, desks, and pens that have been charged with cleaning the air up will probably be executed when the crowds go home.

On the chance that I am wrong here - it could be that the Chinese government is more concerned with security, than air quality. But even at that, there are those that think the Chinese are playing up the terror threats to justify themselves for the heavy police presence that is actually more concerned with dissidents to the regime than jihadists.

I hope the people that call our government a bunch of fascists for their efforts against terrorism will take note. What they will see during these games will be real fascism, not politically perceived.



4 comments:

Greg said...

Somewhat funny aside - one of the local news stations is sending their morning anchorwoman (Anne Allred) to China to cover the Olympics. She signed off this morning by placing a surgical mask over her face and saying, "See you in a month."

hehehe

LA Sunset said...

She should make a stop in Japan, where they sell those cans of air in convenience stores. Maybe she arrange a bulk shipment to her hotel. She's going to need it.

I grew up in So Cal, when the air was quite smoggy. But on it's worst days, it never looked like the pics I have seen of China since they embraced capitalism.

No need to worry about the future of Chinese military power, they will have a billion people dying in their 40s of emphysema, asthma, and other chronic lung diseases, real soon.

A.C. McCloud said...

This sounds analogous to liberals in the US thinking they are so freaking powerful they can actually change the earth's climate. At least the Chinese are only trying to alter a local climate.

LA Sunset said...

//At least the Chinese are only trying to alter a local climate.//

Noble effort, for sure. But it didn't get this way overnight. I doubt they can clean it up overnight.