Meteorologist Jackie Meretsky

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics – Disqualifying smog and traffic!

In China, the number 8 is associated with prosperity. I hope this isn’t the case here in the U.S. because I had a choice between the 6th floor and the 8th floor when I chose my apartment and for no reason at all I went with floor six. Both apartments have the same layout, although now it seems as if one is more prosperous. Great.

If I can’t benefit from the number 8, then hopefully some of the 10,500 athletes competing in the Beijing summer Olympics will as the games officially start on 08-08-08 at 8pm. The games are just over 1 year away and already the heat is on in Beijing as preparations have kicked into high gear as they get ready to host the worlds best athletes, the excited spectators and the highly acclaimed media from an international community -- that at the very least hope to be able to breath fresh air.

Beijing's Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

China’s costly and dangerous environmental crisis is achieving notoriety under an international microscope that is trying to see through the smoggy lens. Within the past month, China has put the kibosh on two potentially damaging environmental reports. The first report indicated that China had lobbied the World Bank to retract at least parts of an assessment that would have published information on premature death due to air pollution. According to an article in the Financial Times newspaper, the report would have shown that 750,000 Chinese die every year prematurely due to urban air pollution.

Yikes.

Maybe watching the games from my unlucky 6th floor apartment won’t be so bad after all.

Another report surfaced shortly afterward indicating that the Chinese government cancelled the publication of a “Green GDP” which would have measured the cost of pollution in relation to the economy. The decision by the Chinese government to attempt to withhold environmental information to the international community suggests either a reluctance to acknowledge their environmental crisis; or rather they just didn’t want the international community to find out about it, or a combination of both. Bureaucratic politics may be a critical factor here as well with different levels of government making conflicting decisions that inevitably slows down and in some cases stalls the entire reporting process.

Bureaucratic politics may have more to do with this than we think. China actually has, relatively speaking, strong environmental policies – the kicker is trying to enforce policies with local and provincial governments prioritizing economic growth often at the expense of the environment.

Wait a second…are we talking about China or the USA?

It’s difficult to tell the two super-powers apart these days with booming economies and smog filled skies!

The USOC (United States Olympic Committee) has admitted concern over air pollution and traffic congestion, but in the true American spirit are optimistic that organizers of the games will address the issues. "Those two areas continue to be a concern to me. But I've also seen where they have addressed. I think, they have improved to the level that it won't have negative impact on the Games," (Xin Huan)

There are indeed some signs of hope on the streets of Beijing with traffic plans in place and pollution controls in effect. One million cars will be removed from the streets of Beijing this summer in an effort to reduce smog and the traffic plan that was used during the Africa summit earlier this year may again be adopted for the summer games as it proved to be highly effective in curbing traffic and bringing blue skies.

Heavy traffic in Beijing during a day foggy from air pollution. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Surely if the Chinese are able to control the weather during the Games, they can do something about the pollution and traffic. Yes, I said control the weather. In case you didn’t know, summer is Beijing’s rainy season and nothing spoils an opening ceremony like drenching rain. Enter rockets. Guess what, we did it first (don’t we always) as my colleague Bill Karins informed me. No, the rockets didn’t come from Weather Plus, although I wouldn’t put it past us at the rate we’re growing. Rather in the 1940s, an American scientist, Bernard Vonnegut (brother of novelist Kurt) used iodine to test its effect on clouds. Although cloud seeding and sending rockets into clouds aren’t exactly parallel in methodology, both involved the manipulation of weather, which has become the focus of the CMA (Chinese Meteorological Association) this summer.

Allow me to momentarily go off on a tangent. Think about this: If it’s ok for the CMA to shoot rockets into the sky to disperse clouds for the opening ceremonies torch relay, then what’s next? How about shooting rockets into the sky for a Royal wedding or any outdoor wedding for that matter as long as you can afford the cost of the rocketry! Countless bridezillas will be ordering American Colonial China (pardon the pun), Vera Wang gowns, and rockets to shoot into the sky before the ceremony lest a raindrop should ruin the perfectly pinned up do that even Final Net hairspray can’t hold should a drenching thunderstorm erupt!

You can count on my next blog having an Orwellian tone as I lay out the groundwork for governmental control of the weather (big brother style) and the inevitable coup d’etat on Mother Nature. Until then, let’s hope that environmental laws and policy continue to grow as fast as the impressive Chinese economy.