Archive for the ‘Olympics’ Category

If your considering going to the Beijing Summer Olympics starting 08/24/08, you may want to invest in a gas mask. Air quality concerns are still a high priority for Beijing’s Summer Olympics. According to CNN, the Mayor of Beijing was quoted last Sunday as saying that “Beijing will use the strictest standards to control emissions and curb pollution for the Summer Olympics but it will be an uphill task”.

In order to address the Olympics Air Quality concerns, Beijing will have to deal with gridlock and rampant pollution throughout the city. Part of the plan is to shut down blast furnaces in the city’s biggest steel company, convert some coal burning factories to gas, and some factories have been relocated outside the city. Already 78 miles of trees have been planted in a ring around the city, to hopefully take up some of the pollution, and 1/3 of Beijing’s 3.3 million cars will be banned from the city during the Olympics.

It is a tall order, but Beijing is committed to being ready by August.

The President of the International Olympic Committee, Jaques Rogge, said in an interview with CNN in 2007, that the Olympic Committee will put the health of the athletes first. If the Air Quality is poor for a particular event, that event would be postponed or canceled.

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