China Races To Clean Up Olympic Air 362
Hugh Pickens writes "With the Olympics due to start in less than three weeks, Beijing is cranking up antipollution measures by yanking cars off the roads, expanding mass transit and staggering work hours in a bid to meet its pledge of a 'green' Olympics. Beijing has gone on a spending spree, relocating factories, seeding clouds, retiring old vehicles, planting millions of trees and halting building construction amid concerns that athletes and visitors could suffer breathing problems. For the next two months, owners of 3.3 million private cars can drive only on alternate days in China's capital, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd. Environmental and sports performance experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the measures taken so far. 'Arguably these are all short-term measures, just designed to control air quality for the time when the Olympics are on,' says Dr Andy Jones. Dr Angus Hunter warned that athletes are at risk for low performance if the air quality cannot be brought down to acceptable levels. 'Average times could be lower and the chances of records being broken become less. It's a bit like trying to exercise in a room when the gym is full of smokers.'"
Environmental Wackos (Score:5, Interesting)
China is the one of the worst, if not THE WORST environmental disasters this world has ever had. They are having one HELL of a time trying to clean up the mess they've created for themselves.
By the time the Olympics comes around, I hope that the Chineese government has enough Egg Foo Young on their face to cause them to loose face to the whole world.
Then maybe, just maybe they'll clean up their act. Naaaa, what I am thinking.
Shutting Down PCB Factories (Score:5, Interesting)
Just got an email from my PCB Fabrication house :
"For our Printed Circuit Board customers using Chinese vendors, please be aware of the following air quality policy announcement from Chinese authorities:
In preparation for the Olympics, China has announced a factory shutdown for 9 weeks to clear smog and improve air quality in a 200 kilometer radius of Beijing. The shutdown begins July 17th and will extend until September 20th. Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces are affected by the shutdown.
If air quality does not improve before the start of the Olympics, there may be an expansion of the shutdown. There are concerns there could also be a bottleneck at two main ports. "
Wonder how it will affect Chip prices
Yeah... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ummm, no kidding? What does he mean, "arguably"? It's like how Athens temporarily incarcerated the city's thousands of stray dogs and then turned them all loose when the Games ended.
Signs (Score:3, Interesting)
Arguably these are all short-term measures, just designed to control air quality for the time when the Olympics are on
Is it obvious to anyone else that that statement should be a sign? If you have to reduce pollution so athletes don't cripple their records, shouldn't you, I don't know, try and stop it forever? I honestly hope no records are broken, and that every athlete in an event outside performs terribly compared to history, so hopefully a few more people might open their damned eyes.
Re:Just now? (Score:5, Interesting)
I apologize profusely for not posting this in a more relevant spot, and for not finding where I originally heard this suggested, but, one interesting theory is that the reason for this nearly doubling of oil prices in the past year is that China is stockpiling it to run diesel instead of coal plants, so as to clean up their air for the olympics.
Considering how inscrutable these recent price increases have been, this one seems really good at explaining things. Just a thought.
For now, check out item 3 [aspo-usa.com] from a while ago, which mentions China trying to clean up for the Olympic games, and how they're importing more diesel.
Danger Will Robinson (Score:5, Interesting)
It will be interesting how this will play out in the social/economical dynamics of China.
Will the employees be paid during the shutdown?
Have downstream manufactures in other areas made provisions to get alternate input sources?
Will there be any unexpected interruptions in the supply chain? Either domestic consumption or export goods.
If downstream factories in other areas have to shutdown there will not be government support, there will be unhappy workers.
Having unhappy idle workers while the government is telling everyone to be happy about the Olympics is not a good thing.
Also if US orders for Christmas are down because of US domestic fears then some idled factories might not find it easy to restart.
Non-sports stuff more interesting than the event (Score:5, Interesting)
I usually hate following the Olympic because it's such a bore.
This year, all the stuff "around" the competition is WAY more interesting:
-How many people will be arrested for silly things?
-Will the athletes choke on the smog?
-Will anything be allowed to be broadcasted out of China?
-How many Chinese will try to defect?
-And of course: The badly translated sign of the day.
I don't think leaders of China will be able to stand have a spot light on them for the full 2 weeks. Imagine the fallout from regular Chinese people getting unfiltered news from the mouths of so many non-controlled people!
Atlanta Olympics (Score:5, Interesting)
Happens in every olympics.
During the Atlanta Olympics, many homeless people were taken for a bus ride to different part of the state.
Many of the homeless were jailed for silly offenses.
http://www.straight.com/olympic-cities-punish-poor [straight.com]
Re:Just now? (Score:2, Interesting)
China is making many efforts to go towards a greener future, and 3 of their changes do sound rather long term.
>> relocating factories
>> retiring old vehicles
>> planting millions of trees
Besides this they have been researching sustainable cities for a while now.
Re:Just now? (Score:3, Interesting)
then why dont they just sign onto the kyoto protocol at the same level that other developed (read the united states) countries are supposed to.
oh wait.......
China is the single largest user of coal power and also the single dirtiest and most unsafe user as well.
the average death rate for chinese coal workers is more than 10/day iirc.
Not as doubtful as you'd think (Score:5, Interesting)
There seems to be a lot of incredulity about Beijing's ability to clean up for the Olympics, but you are all forgetting that the government here is doesn't have the same limitations of a democracy, and can implement massive policy changes immediately. There are shutting down over 350 (!) factories down here, and have taken 60% of the cars off of the road. Most construction has stopped. I was here on Sunday, the first day this process went into effect, and we had a brilliant blue sky. Things are a little hazy again today, but they're not done shutting down everything yet. Expect a relatively pollution free Olympics. Sorry to rain on your hate parade guys. This is only a temporary solution though, which is amazing considering they spent 40 billion on infrastructure change to support the cleanup effort.
LS
Re:Danger Will Robinson (Score:4, Interesting)
If downstream factories in other areas have to shutdown there will not be government support, there will be unhappy workers. Having unhappy idle workers while the government is telling everyone to be happy about the Olympics is not a good thing.
Nobody would dare to oppose or express discontent at anything the government does in order to ensure the success of the Olympic Games. It's not even a matter of profit or worldwide publicity anymore. It's a matter of life and death. My Chinese penfriend says that she'll be "serving the Olympic" - this should give you an idea about their dedication. You may condemn their government, but if they can do anything properly at all, then it's motivating people to take action.
Re:Just now? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:uh, wtf? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Non-sports stuff more interesting than the even (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately this won't be as interesting as you think, because they're truly world-class at show, behind-the-scenes action and changing facts by political pressure.
-How many people will be arrested for silly things?
If there are any foreigners arrested, the authorities will claim that they were arrested for offenses not related to politics, and authentic-looking footage will be presented. Rejecting the footage as fake will be regarded as anti-Chinese agitation. Domestic arrestees will be held until the end of the Olympic, and will not be allowed to make public statements under severe penalties (assuming there will be any, which I doubt).
-Will anything be allowed to be broadcasted out of China?
Yes, you won't notice anything unusual. Instead of trying to control the news broadcasts, they will control reality.
-How many Chinese will try to defect?
Zero. There is no noticeable "resistance movement" in China. They really believe in their government, even we think it's evil.
-And of course: The badly translated sign of the day.
All the Zhonglish you see originates from factories which try to save on packaging design. There are lots of people who can speak proper English in China, and they won't be saving on translators or anything that has to do with the Olympics, because it's a matter of life and death.
But we are not in the 70's (Score:4, Interesting)
Or how about chemical pollution in the US until the 1970s?
China's position on pollution is no different than what other countries went through... the difference is just one of scale.
How does China get a pass on this? They are supposed to be a modern superpower just like the U.S. They are not what I would call a "developing nation", and produce most of the advanced electronics we use today.
The failure they have is totally unrelated to to past problems the U.S. and others have seen with pollution. The effects are well known, as are means of controlling emissions. There simply is no will to impose any controls.
Re:Just now? (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh come on, the tin-foil accusation is low and very misplaced. The theory proposes precisely ONE agent acting. ONE. As in, "not a conspiracy". 95% of the theory is already public knowledge:
-Oil prices have ~doubled.
-China wants to look good for the olympics, including having clean air.
-Diesel is cleaner than coal.
-China has already done lots of other things to clean up.
-China has massively increased imports of refined diesel.
-Developing countries were known to be growing rapidly since at least '04, yet it didn't seem to justify $100+ oil then.
-Ditto for pretty much every other factor that can account for increasing oil prices.
And you can probably even look up the fraction of global oil recently bought by China, satellite images of power plant mods, etc.
This is no tin-foil hat theory.
Blog from a guy in China with pictures (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been reading this guy's blog [theatlantic.com] off and on because he's posting pictures of the air quality. Compare this picture [theatlantic.com] with this one [theatlantic.com] to see what difference is being made.
Re:Environmental Wackos (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with ignoring Chinese (or Indian) pollution today because of American or European pollution 50 to 100 years ago is, they should've learned from us. When the West went through industrialization, we were trail blazers, and made a lot of mistakes. If Chinese leaders had any sense in them, they'd learn from our mistakes and avoid making the same ones. They're not, which is just a shame.
Re:Just now? (Score:5, Interesting)
When you're talking about a finite resource like clean air, a per capita analysis is worthless, the total effect is what's important. China has 1 billion+ people.
Re:Just now? (Score:4, Interesting)
if you consider the pollution on a per person basis, the Chinese are polluting far less than most developed nations.
When you're talking about a finite resource like clean air, a per capita analysis is worthless, the total effect is what's important. China has 1 billion+ people.
You have to consider a per capita basis... it's sort of like sitting at the dinner table with the fat guy with the overflowing plate telling the bunch skinny guys with a single pea on their plates to eat less.
Re:Chairman Mao says take the bus! (Score:3, Interesting)
people will die (Score:3, Interesting)
I know that it my sound extreme. but the reality is this:
I just received a notice from my Printed circuit Board vendor in China stating that they will be unable to provide deliveries during this time due to mandatory shutdowns. thus i will have to resort to expensive U.S manufacturing. If im doing that then i assume others are doing the same. perhaps on a different scale then what my little company uses. As a whole this has to be effecting the average worker that works as such facilities there in china. Poor guy who was bringing home that 2$ a day now brings home none. on a larger scale you will see starvation, because i know more factory's then just PCB's manufacturing will be shut down.
that 2$ a day buys grain to eat. how will he earn his grain?
people might argue how this will effect consumer goods. but don't forget there is a human factor involved.
Re:Just now? (Score:4, Interesting)
To be fair, while China consumes 1,310,000,000 billion short tons of coal (and is the top coal consumer, 28.7% in these numbers); the US, with a fraction of the population, is right behind it at #2 with 1,060,000,000 B short tons (23.3%)
China is 16th worldwide in coal-per-capita; US is 5th, behind South Africa, N. Korea, Greece, and at #1 coal-per-capita, Australia, oddly enough.
More fun stats via http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_coa_con-energy-coal-consumption [nationmaster.com]
Re:Environmental Wackos (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry for laughing at that. But the only reason they 'acknowledge' natural disasters right now is to offset the realization of the general public that most of the deaths during the last few earthquakes and floods were due to massive corruption in government and building surveillance.
They create a new enemey ('nature'), to prevent from the Party getting the blame it deserves. 'quake lakes' my ass. There's a lot of building contractors and local officials in china that should be hanged for their corruption. Official 'acknowledgements [newsgd.com]' notwithstanding.
Oh, and the 'clean' air for the olympics of course. Really, no. China has been polluting north-east asia for decades now. You might want to check out the satellite maps of the wonderful Yangtze and Yellow river deltas.
You don't even need false color too see that they're pumping all sorts of shit into the oceans.
And unlike what others below me have stated, it's not just a matter of scale. Rapid development in Europe and the US, no matter how destructive it was, also kickstarted environmentalism, the protected natural park systems and both private and public efforts to safeguard the environment, thanks to the openness of the government (that is 'democracy'). China has no such thing...
Also stockpiling a strategic reserve... (Score:3, Interesting)
Another related demand on oil is that China is building a strategic petroleum reserve, similar to the one in the USA. Now, in theory, that build-out is still ongoing, and the fill rate is relatively slow. However, given the extreme importance of the diesel supplies during the Olympics, I would not be surprised if the Chinese SPR is being built and filled a lot quicker than publicized.
China's SPR barely gets mentioned in the media, but it's huge, though, smaller than that of the USA. They aim to store the equivalent of several weeks of their crude imports.
Is it really enough to affect the world price? Who knows, certainly not I.
Re:Just now? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah I was in Beijing about a year ago. They had started many of the air-quality programs already, such as banning scooters on the innermost two ring-roads that encircle Beijing and limiting new-construction permits.
This (poor-quality) snapshot of the Bird's Nest from a moving taxi: Bird's Nest [pallium.com] might give you an idea of what visibility was like while I was there.
When I was there I really came the conclusion that:
a) there was no conceivable way they could really improve the air quality enough in a year
b) Beijing was not going to be remembered as a "great Olympic venue."
I applaud their effort, for sure. They can't be faulted for trying, and try hard they did. But I think it's a little difficult to undo millennia of environmental neglect in a few years.
BTW, I still think Beijing is a very interesting place and I look forward to visiting it again. I'm just glad I'm not going to be doing any 100-m dashes while I'm there.
Re:London Smog Disaster of 1952 (Score:2, Interesting)
Please compare like with like.