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A little smog problem - Beijing

With the opening of the Summer Olympics just a few weeks away, Beijing has been scrambling to reduce the pervasive smog that shrouds the city. Banning people from driving, shutting down polluting factories, they have been trying everything. To no avail it seems -- from The Telegraph:

Beijing shrouded in smog two weeks before China's Olympic Games
China is considering even more stringent measures to control pollution as Beijing continues to be shrouded in smog less than two weeks before the Olympics.

The area where the games will take place failed the government's own smog targets, even as officials opened the Olympic Village with great fanfare.

The air was "unhealthy for sensitive groups," the city's environmental protection bureau said.

The official targets are themselves much looser than those considered "safe" by the World Health Organisation.

"It doesn't really look so good," said Gunilla Lindberg, the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee.

The cost of economic growth -- still, they should have realized that July in Beijing is smoggy when they lobbied to host the games... Posted by DaveH at July 29, 2008 10:59 AM | TrackBack