POLLUTION-CHINA.COM

"We will do everything possible to honor the promise"
(Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau)

Beijing announced last monday some measures that will be taken against pollution to bring "green games" to the athletes this summer. The measures will officially be in effect for two months (from July 20 to Sept. 20) and will include:

• two-months halt of construction (even spray painting outdoors will be banned)
• traffic restriction to ban half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles during the Olympics (Aug. 8-24)
• 19 heavy polluting factories will be forced to either reduce pollution emissions by 30 percent or stop activity

Since most of Beijing's pollution is due to emissions from surrounding provinces, Du Shaozhong also mentionned that some of these measures will also take effect in five provinces and municipalities around Beijing (Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Inner Mongolia).

During the press conference, Du Shaozhong also said:

"Just tell everybody they don't have to worry."

Well, I guess athletes and tourists don't have to worry for the games period, but what about Beijingers like me who are still exposed to heavy pollution everyday?

Sources: International Herald Tribune, Aujourd'hui la Chine (article in French)

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Frederic Muller wrote : solutions

Wear a mask? ;-)

Frederic Muller wrote : no one else care?

I'm surprised nobody else commented on this. I've been thinking about my short (and stupid) comment to a very serious issue. First there will be more competitions after August 24th, so does it mean the athletes from the para-Olympics count "less". And as you mention, we live here on a yearly basis... our value is really really low on the consideration scale. This is not a China-specific issue actually, the same goes for the US and other places. What do we have to do for governments to care about their own more than their personal financial interests?

Chris D wrote :

Fred, in response to your second post, I think the unofficial or unwritten policy here is people, in general, are expendable. The Olympics brings with it international attention and scrutiny. We're talking about face, here. (and no, a mask won't help with the face issue!)

Do the paralympics athletes matter less? Hopefully not! But, have you ever seen as much (or even a decent fraction) of international attention being given to the paralymics? So, not a face issue anymore - the foreign journalists will be long gone at that point.

Frederic Muller wrote :

what a sad world we live in...

Mandy wrote : Reader from Hong Kong

Hi Author,

I am glad to know that a foreigner like you, can devote such a large effort in concerning the pollution problem in our China land. I am now undertaking a environmental managemnent programme in Hong Kong and would certainly like to learn sth from this issue, especially concerning the Olympics.

You are right to say that the Chinese officals like to gain immediate results, instead of permanant environmental results and sustainable development. All in all they dun wanted to lose face in the international event. I hope ppl would be aware of both sides of the coin.

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