Beijing Stops Construction for Olympics: Attempt to clear the air for Games

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 15, 2008

BEIJING — Chinese officials laid out a sweeping series of measures on Monday that will freeze construction projects, shutter chemical plants and close down obsolete gas stations around Beijing, the capital, this summer in an attempt to clear the air for the Olympics. Even spray painting outdoors will be banned during the weeks before and after sporting events, which begin on August 8.

Although the announced plans raise a host of unanswered questions, they represent the most concrete scenario for how Beijing will reach its long-standing pledge to stage a “green games” in one of the world’s most polluted cities.

The measures include a two-month halt in construction and government directives that will force coal-burning power plants to reduce their emissions by 30 percent throughout most of the summer. Officials said that 19 heavy-polluting enterprises, including steel mills, coke plants and refineries, would be either temporarily mothballed or forced to reduce production. Quarries will be closed, as will all cement production, and the use of toxic solvents outdoors will be forbidden....

***

In recent months, independent scientists who have sampled Beijing’s air say that levels of ozone and particulate matter from diesel engines remains five times higher than standards set by the World Health Organization.

The president of the International Olympics Committee, Jacques Rogge, said a particularly smoggy day could prompt officials to postpone outdoor endurance events; some runners have said they will practice outside the city to avoid the worst air, although the suburbs may not provide much refuge: a good deal of Beijing’s foul air drifts in from distant cities and neighboring provinces, some as far away as Inner Mongolia....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/world/asia/15china.html?hp

[Richardo]

1. Polishing a turd

This will be a huge embarrassment for China, to which I can only say: Good.

[fed-up]

2. how are all the workers and residents going to be compensated?? this is insane nt

[natrat]

3. if anything is more a crock of shit---green games-more like greenwashing

[rayofreason]

4. Check this out

Images from space:

http://askachinese.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/worlds-most-polluted-city/satellite-image-of-particulate-pollution-over-beijing-china/

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17206

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17649

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/last_comment_of_the_year_on_th.php

You know that the Chinese government has got to hate it that anyone can look down and see how bad it really is.

[Earth_First]

5. It's like when the highways in our cities are cleaned only because shithead is coming...

Same theory, different scale.

I remember when * came to Rochester two years ago, the state and local authorities combed the highways leading from the airport to his engagement (and back).

[kwyjibo]

6. and when it's over, they can go back to destroying the planet?

those satellite pictures are so depressing. I hope they realize that they need to lower their emissions for good, not just for the olympics.

[zonkers]

7. Sick thing is, we fund that pollution by buying all their cheap crap, which

which we have to dispose of somewhere in a few years ourselves, causing more pollution. And lets not think that toxic cloud stays over China, it floats right across the water toCA. China's government and our Trade Policies are killing us.

[rayofreason]

8. China 'now top carbon polluter'

Not LBN, but relevant to the discussion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7347638.stm

[ohio2007]

17. BUT... they are a developing country so they get slack

[rayofreason]

18. indeed n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. The most constructive step they could take to clear their air

would be to ban cars and revert to bicycles (the way that the vast majority of Beijing residents got around when I visited in 1990) till the games are over.

Being a dictatorship, they could actually do it, but then the Party officials wouldn't be able to show off their Mercedes.

Beijing is flat and the weather is nice at this time of the year. Bicycling makes sense in a way that having masses of cars doesn't.

[Doctor Cynic]

10. Perhaps cities like Chicago and Minneapolis should ban cars and revert to bikes.

It will also force all the fatties to lose weight.

What makes people on this board think they're more entitled to have cars and use more energy than the average guy in China?

At least China is dead serious about urban transit projects (to prevent McMansion sprawling hellholes from emerging) and cleaner energy (20% renewable energy by 2020. What is Chimp planning?)

By the way, Beijing's summers feel more like Nevada's given that the Gobi Desert is creeping inwards.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I'd be for it, except that I have very bad knees

so my ambition is to save up for an electrically-assisted bike. I hate driving.

[tom_paine]

12. This is for international media and the Free World, not Amerika

Imperial Amerikan Corporate Media probably is prepared (maybe they made a deal with the Chinese, maybe they are just doing it for free...good business) to digitally remove the pollution from braodcasts to the sheep.

One push of the button, and Beijing's air becomes as crystal clear as the air over the Rocky Mountains in 1700.

And for those who will paint this a crazy :tinfoilhat:, tell me this then, is there any any ANY technological barrier to the Amerikan Slave Networks doing this.

Is this ANY stretch of the imagination as to the capabilities of the digital video technology?

I presume you realize, the answer is no. This is no tinfoil. If Imperial Slave Media, in order to sell more products to the sheep, desires to do this, it is 100% and easily within the reach of current technology.

Free America (1776-2000, RIP) would likely have never done something likethis. A Big Lie of that magnitude would have run against the grain of what Free America was all about (or tried to be with a fair amount of success).

Imperial Amerika is all about lies, aristocracy, and marketing. It's only good marketing for Imperial Slave Media to get rid of the pollution digitally. Don't want the sheep to become confused and agitated. Confused and agitated sheep don't buy product.

Therefore, I predict that the Empire WILL (greater than 95% chance) do this, and they probably won't even need to be prompted.

[Doctor Cynic]

13. They'll need to stop the athletes from keeling over sick, as well.

Ain't gonna work that way.

And what motive is there, even if it were possible to do in a live setting?

[tom_paine]

14. Why, they'll handle like they handle everything else outside the Bushie False Reality Bubble

Either ignore it or lie about it. That Marathon Runner had the flu, you see.

Of course it's possible to do in a live setting. Just adjust the contrast and color, perhaps a couple others, of the output signal. As to the why, I just told you.

To sell products. Contented sheep are buying sheep. Pollution in Beijing might cause people to ponder pollution in the Empire, and that will lead to discontented peasantry.

Discontented peasantry does not buy as much product as contented peasantry.

“ ‘If you don’t weant a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides of a question to worry him, give him one. Better yet, give him none Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.... Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to popular songs or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ and they’ll feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. And they’ll be happy, for facts of that sort don’t change. Then they’ll feel their thinking. They’ll get a sense of motion without moving.’”
--Captain Beatty, “Farenheit 451”

You really should study the modern techniques of advertising, marketing, and public relations. They are the Bible which points the way to our future. A one-year subscription to Advertising Age would be a good start. But get ready to shower, you may feel a bit filthy after reading it.

Not that I agree with that coming future, quite the opposite. But we do oursdelves no service by lying to ourselves about what we are and what we are likely to become.

What we are is Consumers, not Citizens. What we are likely to become, if we haven't become it already, are weak-minded Virtual Slaves in search of Masters' Boots to lick and polish.

So, you really think that digital elimination of Chinese Pollution is not possible in a "live setting".

Pardon me while I fall down laughing. :rofl:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Not out of the question

Given the time difference between the U.S. and China, many of the events will take place after midnight, U.S. time.

[ohio2007]

16. So, will all these laid off workers get compensation or ........not ?

thats the question. How many will be sent out to the farms for an extended "vacation" ? Say maybe Tibet