Smog Olympics

The Chinese have a tradition of believing that numbers have a certain power, so they arranged to start the Olympics on an auspicious day, the 8th of the 8th, 2008. The word for "eight" in Mandarin sounds similar to the word which means "prosper" or "wealth". You can tell quite a lot about a culture from their language.

However the Chinese have their own calender, www.chinese.new-year.co.uk/calendar.htm, based on the cycles of the moon. Perhaps in that calender its not a good day, as the games didn't start well. Despite drastic measures to reduce pollution in Beijing, closing factories and banning cars, there's smog as can be seen in the picture above.

Over 10,000 athletes are competing in the Olympic Games in one of the world's dirtiest cities, so much for a 'green games' as promised by China, just imagine the emissions from flying them, their support people, hangers on journalists and sport fans. Pure greenwash. I went to China many years ago (by train from Russia, the trans Siberian express), and I was amazed at the proximity of factories with chimneys to blocks of flats. The planning laws in Britain that we complain aren't tight enough are made to look like paradise by comparison.

The International Olympics Committee says that endurance events for the 2008 Olympics may have to be postponed due to smog. Although the Chinese government has imposed an every-other-day driving regulation, Beijing's pollution index has risen all week.

The athletes could be exposed to unhealthy air pollution, but the citizens of China suffer this every day. The air is often thick with pollution in Beijing, a city of 11 million. When there is no rain or wind, ozone and fine dust accumulate, often to a rate that is two or three times the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The fine dust stems mainly from coal power plants and factories, while vehicle exhaust gases are responsible for the ozone. Its a vicious cycle, the worse the air, the more people will want to use cars to protect their lungs, causing more pollution. Children, the chronically ill, the elderly and endurance athletes like marathon runners and cyclists face the greatest risk. Endurance athletes spend hours performing at peak levels in the open air, inhaling up to 150 liters of air a minute, more than 10 times as much as a sedentary office worker. Ozone and fine dust can cause inflammation that requires treatment with asthma and anti-inflammatory drugs. It may also be linked to Cancer.

More than 20 percent of US athletes reacted to the smog in Athens with breathing difficulties. In Los Angeles, British runner Steve Ovett collapsed with respiratory problems after the 800-meter race. Ovett is convinced that pollution was the culprit. "Many suffered from the bad air, but hardly anyone said anything," Ovett complained in an article in the scientific journal Nature.

It seemed a crazy idea at the time to have the Olympics in China, they promised openness has turned out to be a lie, but at least the world is now seeing more of why China needs to change.

MOST DANGEROUSLY POLLUTED CITIES PARTICULATE MATTER AIR POLUTION 2004
(Micrograms per cubic meter)
Source: The World Bank Particulate
RANK CITY COUNTRY Particulates
1 Cairo Egypt 169
2 Delhi India 150
3 Kolkata India 128
4 Tianjin China 125
5 Chongqing China 123
7 Kampur India 109
8 Lucknow India 109
9 Jakarta Indonesia 104
10 Shenyang China 101
11 Zhengzhou China 97
12 Jinan China 94
13 Lanzhou China 91
14 Taiyuan China 88
16 Beijing China 89
17 Chengdu China 86
18 Ahmadabad India 83
19 Anshan China 82
20 Wuhan China 79

http://www.allcountries.org/air_pollution.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,491184,00.html