02.03.08
Posted in Beijing, Environment, Olympics, Travel and Tourism at 15:05 by Nator
Mul’s recent post on pollution got me thinking a bit. It’s pretty obvious to anyone who comes to Beijing, or any number of places in China, that the air is terrible. A few weeks ago, Steve Andrews released a study, apparently done on his own, claiming that the government had been playing with the pollution numbers:
The study, written by an American environmental consultant, found flaws in Beijing’s “Blue Sky” system of air quality monitoring stations and noted that the city changed its method for measuring pollution in 2006. In particular, officials stopped including readings from two stations in polluted areas and began using readings in three other stations in less polluted locales…
“Irregularities in the monitoring of air quality account for all reported improvements over the last nine years,” said Steven Q. Andrews, the author of the study, in a telephone interview.
I have met Steve once or twice here in Beijing; he seems like a smart and honest guy, and I don’t doubt the veracity of his findings. What’s fascinating to me is how the debate on this topic, especially in the run-up to the Olympics, is focused on the government’s goals of “blue sky days”, the pollution index, etc.
When the pollution here gets bad, you can see it. You can smell it. So why are so many people caught up arguing over numbers with the government? Even by winning this argument, what has been proven, other than that there were a lower number of “blue sky days”? As Steve’s report shows, the numbers were likely fudged to begin with. I can’t see how the government lets pollution stop the Games, and I can’t see any real solution to the pollution problem in the coming years. Beijing alone isn’t the problem; you can find horribly dirty air in many rural areas far from big cities. China’s in trouble, and it’s going to be many years before things get better.
UPDATE: Here’s Steve’s original editorial in the Wall Street Journal.
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01.27.08
Posted in Beijing, Environment, Internet and Media, Olympics, USA at 22:38 by Mul
The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. Olympic team is considering recommending that its athletes wear a mask in Beijing when not competing. A U.S. Olympic team scientist:
is urging all the athletes to wear specially designed masks over their noses and mouths from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing.
Having recently acquired the equivalent of “coal miner’s lung” within a day of arriving in Beijing, I have more than a little sympathy for precautions to combat Beijing’s air pollution. I don’t think anyone credible truly believes the pollution problem will be solved before August 2008. Sure, Beijing authorities plan to cut traffic in half during the games. That is during the Olympics, by the way, not before. I’m no air pollution expert, but wouldn’t it make sense to cut down on traffic prior to the games to decrease the level of air pollution?
I think the scariest event, at least for the athletes, will be the marathon. The marathon world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, is threatening to pull out of the event, citing Beijing’s air pollution as the reason. Will the air pollution ruin the Olympics? Maybe not, but that remains an open question. Will it overshadow the games? Likely.
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12.17.07
Posted in Environment, Industry, The Second Tier, Wuhan at 19:47 by Nator
Interesting news from Reuters:
A cluster of cities in central China has been designated the country’s latest experimental zone, this one for energy saving and environmentally friendly programmes, state media reported on Monday.
The Hunan cities of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan — late chairman Mao Zedong’s hometown — as well as the Hubei capital of Wuhan, will be targeted to lead China’s drive to make its breakneck economic growth more environmentally sustainable. Read the rest of this entry »
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12.07.07
Posted in Environment, Health, Industry, Internet and Media at 03:00 by Mul
The reputation of Chinese food and product safety has experienced a slight setback the past several months. There have been well-publicized cases of exports involving tainted seafood, lead paint- and GHB-coated toys and even the mysterious death of a Korean diplomat in Beijing linked to unsafe food. At first, the Chinese government definatly insisted that food and product safety issues are isolated, exaggerated by the paranoid and biased international media or even trumped up due to trade protectionism.
Well, it turns out there may have been something to the international outcry over product safety. The New York Times (via Xinhua) reports today that the government announced it demolished 2,800 rural food facilities, closed down 47,000 illegal food factories and shut down over 300 drug and medical equipment factories. Not so isolated, by my measure.
According to the Times article, new legislation is in the works that will inflict the death penalty on those responsible for products that harm or kill large numbers of people. Presumably, this means the executives of companies that knowingly sell shoddy products. They did not need to wait for the new legislation to punish Cao Wenzhuang, the former head of the pharmaceutical registration department of the State Food and Drug Administration. He was sentenced to death in July for accepting bribes from drug companies for fast-tracking approval of their drugs.
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