Will last-ditch efforts help alleviate Beijing’s air pollution problem?
There have been serious concerns about air quality in the Chinese capital of Beijing ever since it was awarded the Olympic Games in 2001. Since then, the Chinese government has spent an estimated $15 billion dollars to address the air pollution problem in Beijing. The cash has been spent on shutting down factories, unleashing cloud seeders to encourage rain, and now, on paying people to not drive their cars.
Beginning today in Beijing, cars with license plates that end in an odd number are banned from the roads every other day, alternating with cars that have even-numbered plates. It is estimated that there are about 3.5 million vehicles on the roads in Beijing and the ban will reduce the numbers of cars on the road by about one million per day. Drivers will be compensated by not having to pay road and vehicle taxes for three months.
Beijing officials claim to have significantly improved air quality, with just over two-thirds of the days last year meeting national health guidelines, up from only 20% a decade earlier. But some question the validity of the data. An article in the Wall St. Journal suggests that pollution standards may have been loosened, air-quality-monitoring stations moved and data possibly manipulated with to show better results.
By Gavin Hudson •
July 10, 2008
US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama made it clear again this week that he would not have attended the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing because of concern over China’s policies in Tibet and Sudan. His statements came in response to President Bush’s contrasting decision to attend the opening ceremonies.
However, in recent months, Senator Obama has also expressed some mixed feelings about boycotting the Olympics.
We have heard about China’s air quality and pollution woes recently in the media , especially as the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games approaches. A new report released last week adds yet another dimension to China’s environmental concerns.
According to a report entitled Beijing’s Water Crisis: 1949—2008 Olympics, published by Probe International, China’s policy of transferring water from draught-ridden neighborhoods to the nation’s capital in order to meet water needs for the upcoming Olympics is harming China’s environment and local farming economies.
Moreover, the abuse of water supplies contradicts the games’ “green” theme and supposed commitment to sustainability.
By Jennifer Lance •
April 10, 2008
The Chinese plan to use cloud seeding to prevent rain during the Beijing Summer Olympics opening ceremonies. The chances of rain on Aug. 8 are close to 50%.
Source: LA Times
Editor’s note: What does the opening of a McDonald’s in Beijing have to rising food prices in the US, or food riots in other parts of the developing world? Plenty, according to Jen Humphrey, a student in Professor Simran Sethi’s Media and the Environment course at the University of Kansas. This post was originally published to the course blog on Tuesday, March 11, 2008.
Anyone else find this photo creepy?
Something about the sunglasses, I guess. Or the export of American culture.
The photo depicts clowns who were on hand to celebrate the opening of a McDonald’s in Beijing, and it was part of a New York Times article about the company’s record profits in February. McDonald’s profits jumped 11.7 percent internationally, fueled in part by Leap Year sales but also the weak U.S. dollar. You can get more Mac for your Yuan these days.
I’d like to use that story to play the Six Degrees of Separation game. But instead of people, in this instance, I’d like to look at the short distance between food news. We know McDonald’s is doing well – that’s one data point. Let’s put another marker by the story that University of Washington researchers determined that calorie for calorie, junk food is way cheaper than good-for-you food. According to the researchers, who compared foods in major grocery stores in the Seattle area, you pay $1.76 per 1,000 calories for sugary, fatty foods that have the most calories, but you pay $18.16 per 1,000 calories for the lowest-calorie foods (which are most often better for you, such as fruits and vegetables).
There have been serious concerns about air quality in the Chinese capital of Beijing ever since it was awarded the Olympic Games in 2001. Since then, the Chinese government has spent an estimated $15 billion dollars to address the air pollution problem in Beijing. The cash has been spent on shutting down factories, unleashing cloud seeders to encourage rain, and now, on paying people to not drive their cars.
