China has been furiously attempting to clean up the air in Beijing in preparation for this year's Olympic Games. Beijing has been trying to improve its Blue Sky ratings so that its sky can be considered "blue" enough in time for the Olympic games. What exactly is this Blue Sky rating? Well,it is a scientifically- based system through which the city's air quality is measured on a scale of 500 (500 being the worst score); the city can be considered "blue" for a day that it scores below 101. The Chinese government claims that it had scored close to 250 Blue Sky days last year. Many are skeptical of this Blue Sky rating because it was devised by the Chinese government, which would obviously have a vested interest in having a favorable rating.
The International Olympic Committee is concerned for the respiratory health of the athletes competing in the 2008 Olympic games. In fact, in a recent New York Times article (December 29, 2007), the president of the I.O.C. warned that "pollution might force the postponement of some endurance sports." This would be an unprecedented occurrence---air quality issues postponing an Olympic event! As far as I can gather, the Blue Sky initiative measures Beijing's daily levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM 10 (a dangerous particulate). However, many athletes are concerned about how high levels of ozone may affect their athletic performance and their health. Oddly enough, the Blue Sky initiative doesn't account for ozone or another finer particulate known as PM 2.5. As stated in the aforementioned article, "In 2004, the concentration of airborne particulates in Beijing equaled that of New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta combined, according to the United States Embassy in Beijing." In light of this sobering fact, the Chinese government needs to widen the scope of what their Blue Sky initiative measures.
While it is laudable that China and its capital city Beijing has taken many recent steps in the last ten years to improve upon its deplorable environmental record, there are many factors working against its goal of having a "blue" city for the 2008 Olympic games. For one, it is estimated that 1,200 new cars and trucks enter the city every day, thus increasing auto-emissions. Another detractor is that with its increased prosperity, there has been a boom in the construction industry and a reduction in green space. Also, being a global manufacturing powerhouse, factories will continue to burn fossil fuels at a staggering pace.
My major concern is that China is instituting band aid solutions in order to allay the fears of the I.O.C., the World Health Organization, the Olympic athletes themselves, and multitudes of other concerned parties. What happens when the Olympics are over? Will China continue in its quest to improve their environmental record, or will economic advancement continue to be its primary focus, to the detriment of the environment, the health of its people, and the world? The true test will not be how "blue" China will be in 2008, but how "green" it will be in the decades to come!
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