China
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Why Biden is such an important pick for those who care about the climate
Catastrophic climate change is the primary preventable threat to the health and well-being of all Americans — as readers of this blog already understand and as pretty much everyone else will figure out in the coming years. Keeping total planetary warming as low as possible — ideally below 2°C, which it turn requires keeping atmospheric […]
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Athletes play down pollution concerns, Beijing gives in to weather
Not so bad. That’s what Olympic Canadian cyclist Svein Tuft thought of the air quality when he raced on Saturday, Aug. 9 (Air Pollution Index: 78) for six and a half hours outside of Beijing. As The New York Times reported, Tuft made short shrift of the pollution fears: The pollution concerns, he decided, “have […]
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VBS travels to the most polluted city in the world
VBS.tv travels to the most polluted city on earth, the coal mining town of Linfen, China: It’s a five-part series — check out the rest on VBS.tv.
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Why smoggy skies over Beijing represent the world’s greatest environmental opportunity
The Atlantic Monthly‘s James Fallows, now living in China, has written a glass-is-half-full (air-is-half-breathable?) article, “China’s Silver Lining.” While I think he is a bit soft on China from a climate perspective, I think it is well worth reading because Fallows is terrific and thorough writer. And you have to like any story on energy […]
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Smog settles on Beijing for opening ceremony
Friday: On the day of the Olympic opening ceremonies, the Air Pollution Index reading was a moderate 94 (see the “Beijing Air Quality” box on the right side of this page): View of Beijing’s third ring road and CCTV building. Photo taken Aug. 8. And here’s the same view one week earlier, when the API […]
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Athletes forgo masks; Beijing skies gray on Olympics eve
Athletes, journalists, and world dignitaries were greeted with a thick white haze yesterday and today as they descended upon Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games. Much to the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s chagrin, the weather has not delivered the "clear and blue" skies as promised when Beijing was awarded the games. However, as […]
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IOC and multi-nationals complicit in subjecting world class athletes to world class pollution
You can’t criticize awarding the Olympic Games to China just because their rapacious coal-building policy has now made them the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. By that standard, America should never have been awarded the games. But awarding the games to a city that is one of the most polluted in the world […]
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Beijing skies vary days before Olympics
Monday: Taken from a Beijing apartment on Aug. 4:
Tuesday: Proving that the weather and pollution levels are completely unpredictable, the weather of Aug. 5 was sunny and clear:
A silver lining to all this pollution pandemonium? After the Olympic games China will start to monitor two pollutants not currently figured into the Air Pollution Index: ozone and small particulate matter PM2.5.
And James Fallows of the Atlantic reports that at least one of the new four subway lines in Beijing works smoothly.
