The Final Countdown...
Benjamin Hart, my friendly correspondent in Beijing, is keeping some of us across the Pacific visually apprised of Beijing's air quality via his fantastic photos. I had mentioned in a blog I posted about a week ago (July 31) that China's government has been trying to bring down the pollutants in the city's air through a variety of measures including reducing traffic and shutting down factories. Have these measures worked? Well, let's compare two of Ben's pictures of the Beijing skyline.
This first picture was taken July 28 (courtesy, Benjamin Hart).
This second picture was taken August 6 (courtesy, Benjamin Hart).
Certainly Ben's more recent picture reveals some improvement, some being the key word here. It still looks pretty hazy and I'd probably don a respirator at night if I was an Olympic athlete - which surely I am not! Let's cross our fingers that, by the opening ceremony, the air is better.
This first picture was taken July 28 (courtesy, Benjamin Hart).
This second picture was taken August 6 (courtesy, Benjamin Hart).
Certainly Ben's more recent picture reveals some improvement, some being the key word here. It still looks pretty hazy and I'd probably don a respirator at night if I was an Olympic athlete - which surely I am not! Let's cross our fingers that, by the opening ceremony, the air is better.
Comment
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Comment by Elizabeth VanderVen on August 20, 2008 at 10:37pm - Thanks Susan! In response to both you and Jack...LA Times has been publishing little graphs in its Olympic section comparing air quality in LA and Bejing. According to the graph, when the Olympics began (August 8th), Beijing's air had 134 micrograms of particulate matter (PM10) in the air, compared with only 47 in LA. Over the course of the games, the amount in Beijing has steadily decreased and now is only 41 compared with 33 in LA (150 and above is considered unhealthy). The lower amounts of PM10 in the air is likely due to really drastic measures taken by the government right before and during the games. I also saw Teun Voeten's photos in the LA Weekly. Amazing! Apparently so much of Beijing's problem comes from the polluted air in neighboring provinces.
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Comment by Susan Stoebner on August 20, 2008 at 3:07pm - These photos are pretty shocking. Beautiful but alarming photos by Teun Voeten of the pollution problem in Beijing and its environs are in LA Weekly this week. http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/view/117067/1
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Comment by Elizabeth VanderVen on August 18, 2008 at 11:29pm
- Not compared with Beijing's air!
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Comment by jack on August 14, 2008 at 6:12pm - My god! I thought Los Angeles was bad?!
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