There is no question that China's leaders want the Olympics to showcase/enhance The People's Republic's international prestige and power, in that 1936 Berlin kinda way. There's also no question that Beijing's air quality sucks, Big Style. To rectify that politically intolerable situation, The Powers That Be have relocated the city's major polluter (Oy! Beijing Shougang Group! Take your steel plant and piss off!). They've also banned half the city's 3.3m vehicles. Nope. Not good enough. Mother nature is not cooperating, with high humidity, light winds and high temps. As xinhuanet.com reports, China's ready to do whatever it takes to let Olympic athletes gulp great quantities of healthy O2. "A more radical measure would be to allow only vehicles on which had the last number of the license plate matched the last number of the day of the month, effectively banning 90 percent of privately owned cars." Eurozone ministers must be green with envy! Unfortunately… "I cannot ensure whether the government will take these measures," Professor Zhu Tong, air quality adviser to the Beijing Olympics reports, sadly. "Even if the measures are strengthened, the enforcement will last only three or four days." Oh. That's alright then.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
If I see athletes competing in mask, I’m turning it off, even if it’s women’s volleyball. I think I read/watched something this morning about the wearing of mask being a very real possibility.
“…in that 1936 Berlin kinda way.”
Thank you I needed a laugh today.
I’m sure that the 10% that can drive are all party members.
Here in America, I could see environmentalists wanting the same thing for good, and the 10% would include Al Gore and his limo. LOL
Maybe this will help oil prices sink temporarily.
Oil down nearly 30 a barrel from the peak. The news that driving dropped 3.7% from last year should ease it down a bit more.
I once saw a very pretty movie about a young violinist set in modern Beijing called Together. One of the most striking things about it was that everyone heated their homes and cooked entirely with coal (there is a scene where the instructor gets in a fight with neighbor over the placement of the coal delivery). I don’t think eliminating 90% of the cars is going to do much when 7.5m people are cooking up their Manhan Quanxi on coal.
a day late and a RMB short
toxicroach :
July 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Oil down nearly 30 a barrel from the peak. The news that driving dropped 3.7% from last year should ease it down a bit more.
I see oil down 17 dollars from the peak – what are your numbers? Trading at around 124+ now …
===
The extreme cooling of the economy will have an impact on demand and prices short-term — the growing realization that we’re not flush with oil will adjust the price upwards.
The Chinese government’s rampant paranoia about the image of it’s Olympics may yet turn out to be more ententaining than the actual sporting event.
What blows my mind is that this is only coming to light now, days before the Olympics are slated to start.
Did anyone from the IOC, oh, take a deep breath while they were touring the city? Did they step outside? At all?
Detroit-Iron
At least the coal is delivered on zero-emissions tricycles!
147 peak, trading at 122 now.
Shouldn’t have rounded so much.
Did anyone from the IOC, oh, take a deep breath while they were touring the city? Did they step outside? At all?
They were too busy counting their bribe money to notice.
It might be better to avoid mentioning the air quality if one is in China, and sure as hell not posting a picture on the web. Seems the enterprising fellow who posted pictures of collapsed schools from the recent earth quake will be heading off to a labor camp for a year. Something about “seriously disturbing social order”.
Hahahaha. I love how the Chinese think they can sweep things under the rug, talk about how great things are, and the rest of the world won’t know what its really like over there.
Really makes me laugh….except you know things like mel23 posts are totally true.
>> What blows my mind is that this is only coming to light now, days before the Olympics are slated to start.
+1
I saw a news story on television last night showing the various types of dust masks that the participants in the games are going to have available. What a joke.
The Wall Street Journal has been writing about this problem for over 2 months now. It’s funny however that their ‘daily Beijing air quality meter’ info comes from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection; which is as fair and balanced regarding air pollution as Fox News is about politics.
I left Beijing 22-July and despite halting construction and shuttering factories, etc the smog was still impenetrable. It was some of the worst I have seen in the summertime.
But there is still another week to go and maybe the weather will cooperate and blow that muck out of town.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/news/story?id=3510722
What a shame. I am shocked that the Chinese are not growing extra limbs by now. It is not just the air, their water is rancid too.
Looks like L.A. did in the late ’60’s. A lesson not learned.
Oh well, China wants their cake (industrial revolution) and to eat it, too (showcase the Olympics). Maybe they’ll consider the environment a bit more as they move forward.