Aug 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Clear Skies Over Beijing
27 Responses to “Clear Skies Over Beijing”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Except that the “Chinese people” have no real say in the matter, and voicing anything but the party line gets you a one way ticket to “re-education through labour” camp…
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
After the Olympics, I’m sort of afraid that it doesn’t matter what the Chinese people want, especially in the short term. They’d also probably prefer that their houses weren’t mowed down to make way for the Bird’s Nest and that their government didn’t subvert their supposed protest zones. Or maybe not. But either way, they don’t seem to have the efficacy to change it.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
The issue of local urban air pollution is very different from the issue of global warming. It’s a lot easier to see China doing something about the former than the latter.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Clean up China’s air by holding a never ending “edgeless” Olympics in Beijing!
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
um, don’t count on it. 10 kuai says that the pictures of Beijing three months from now look much like the ones from three months ago.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Those emergency measures were pretty hard core though. Even-odd driving days and shutting down factories aren’t easily sustainable. It’s not like they installed more air scrubbers in the stacks or built more mass transit.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
No expert, but didn’t China pretty much have to use their authoritative rule to shut down factories, coal mines, and ration driving to get that cleaner air? So they’ll continue those economic-hindering policies after the Olympics?
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
It seems to me that Chinese people have to be thinking that it might be nice to start taking steps to ensure they can enjoy air this clean all the time.
Why in the world would the Chinese have to be thinking that??? That seems like a very American point of view.
If I were a bettor, I’d bet that the Chinese are thinking “how soon until these Olympic restrictions end so I can go back to driving my new (polluting) car and working in my (polluting) factory to make a living?”
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
It seems to me that Chinese people have to be thinking that it might be nice to start taking steps to ensure they can enjoy air this clean all the time.
Sorry, but forgot. bwa hahahaha.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
It’s not like they installed more air scrubbers in the stacks or built more mass transit
Actually, that’s not true. In the days just before the Olympics, they opened up a huge new subway line, to considerable praise. But your general point stands.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
the occasional clear sky probably has more to do with local weather/wind patterns than any measures the chinese have taken: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/how-beijing-com.html
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Of _course_ it matters to some extent what the Chinese people want–why else has the government put so much work into improving material standards of living for people? They could keep everyone housed in barracks and wearing identical Mao suits if public desires were of zero importance in China. It’s noting like here in the West, of course, but it is quite foolish to pretend that the Chinese people get absolutely no say in setting priorities and policies.
One thing that is conspicuous about China versus our corner of the world is that there is so little protection for the rights and interests of “minorities.” I put that word in quotes because I don’t just mean racial or ethnic minorities (although they get their share of kicks to the head in China), but any sort of population sub-set that can be conceptually split off from “the people.”
Villagers who are in the way of the Three Gorges dam…Shopowners who are in the way of the Bird’s Nest…pet owners whenever there’s any kind of disease outbreak…all of them become “minorities” when their interests are opposed to the majority, and all are kicked to the curb in the most appalling manner. You remember how those opening ceremonies were focused on the word “harmony?” Not “liberty,” not “freedom,” but “harmony?” There ya go. Minorities of any kind are dis-harmonious.
At the moment, popular sentiment in China seems to be focused on rapid acquisition of material goods, and the environment can look after itself. But there was a time, and not long ago, when that was the sentiment here in the US. Sentiments can shift, and if the Chinese start to value clean air above lots of cars, car owners can turn into a scorned and abused minority, too.
Will two weeks of clean air in Beijing be enough to start that kind of shift in opinion? I wouldn’t bet on it–but you never know.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Take a look at James Fallows’ compare-and-contrast photos of Beijing air quality dramatizing the huge achievements made possible by emergency Olympics-related air quality measures.
And fortuitous wind patterns…
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
This just shows you can’t hit a bulls eye with every post. To add to those who checked the weather forecasts, casual Olympic viewing yesterday showed lots of rain in Beijing. Anyone living in LA and environs or another smog center knows that the skies are always clearer after it rains. Not the same for the streets, as they the sewers get all the dirt that’s just washed down from on high.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I’ve been to beijing around the same time two years ago. It was shitty until the winds from the west picked up. Then it was beautiful for weeks. I don’t think it has to do with anything the chinese gov’t did for the olympics.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Um, Matt, Carbon Dioxide isn’t the kind of “polution” that makes you sick. Cleaning up the particulates and such is entirely consistent with putting *more* carbon into the atmosphere…you just need to burn the fuels more cleanly and efficiently.
The Los Angeles area has much much better air quality than it did 30 years ago, but it also emits more carbon. I’d expect a similar trajectory in China.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I think the danger is that China will clean up the non-Carbon air pollution which is most noticable and immediately damaging while at the same time it doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions. That is after all what we did. Also there is a possible danger called Global Dimming. Basically whatever the health effects of the non carbon polutants they seem to actually partially counter the effects of CO2. This means that if they just clean up the non carbon air pollution it will actually make things worse.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:02 am
wow. that is so crazy. i thought this could never be possible since the chinese government is so ‘ stubborn ‘. i remember being in Beijing one year ago and just thinking: how could anybody live in these conditions?! i just got headaches all the time from the pollution. i feel like this is such a great change and that it shows other countries that it IS possible and it CAN be done. that even pollution of such a big and populated city can be changed. i also agree with what Craig McGillivary says though about the CO2 emissions…but oh well. :[
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