With the Olympics having kicked off a few days ago (was I the only one who fell asleep during the interminable opening ceremonies? Jeez; someone needed an editor), I'm fascinated at the political tug of war over the Beijing Smog Problem. To the naked eye, it's obvious that the Chinese capital has a lot of it -- in fact the air particulate matter on opening day was nearly three time that of Los Angeles and at levels that would normally keep school kids indoors during recess in my hometown So Cal (yes, that happened here. Not anymore, because air quality is so much better, but in the 70s, at least 10 times a year).
This is why I'm laughing out loud that this ridiculous story posted by Reuters in which some UN dork chastises the media for ragging on Beijing smog. The part I like is his comparison to the massively successful Los Angeles games in 1984 and its so-called smog problem. Which is crap. I lived in LA back then, and the air quality during the games was fine. The staggering woman marathoner he refers to staggered because it was really hot the day and she was dehydrated. It wasn't smog. Jeez.
It's apparent that Beijing suffers from a helacious inversion layer (or what we call fog), in which moist air traps in the smog. Kudos to them for trying to curb traffic to cut down on emissions, but in a city of 16 million, there's only so much you can do. LA's saving grace in '84 were the ocean breezes that sweeps everything away. Beijing's air is stagnant and still. The opening ceremonies made me sweat, and I was in my cool home sucking down a brew.
The athletes can compete in this environment because they're in world-class shape. If you or I tried to ride our bikes 150 miles in the chemical soup that passed for Beijing air last Saturday, we'd collapse in an asthmatic heap.
Photo credit: Getty Images
1 comment:
You suck
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