Formal (Olympic) Attire In China

[dd74]

This is a photo of a U.S. Olympic cyclist, and what she has to wear upon arriving in China...

Here's the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/sports/olympics/06masks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

There was also a story on NPR today of a runner who went for a 10K run in Beijing two days ago -- he's still hacking up phlegm from the run.

How can Beijing (and China) knowing allow itself to host the Olympic games when the athletes can barely breathe the air? Unbelievable!

[Seric]

Wasn't Al Gore saying something about the U.S. being the largest pollutter in the world? I am hoping this will be a wake-up call for Sheeple to see just how wretched China is. Meanwhile I will probably have to brush up on my Mandarin.

*sigh*

[968rz]

They give them to the riders, tell them to use them for health reasons, and then scold them when do?
Also, is this not the place where the locals are photographed in the hundreds wearing them daily and they got offended? Pa...lease.

[nostatic]

I've been there twice and never felt the need for a mask. There are other issues at play here...

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by nostatic

I've been there twice and never felt the need for a mask. There are other issues at play here...

Indeed. This is the Chinese century. So we have to get our digs in while we can.

[Rick Lee]

Wearing a mask indoors, especially in an airport, is nothing more than political theatre. The air outside is very bad indeed. But indoors it's fine. I don't even know if they allow smoking all over the airports anymore.

[Jim Sims]

"But indoors it's fine."

Only if it's been filtered/washed and if interior air isn't exchanged with external air there can be other problems.

[jyl]

But were you guys (todd and rick) running 26 miles in 2:05 when you were there?

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Seric

Wasn't Al Gore saying something about the U.S. being the largest pollutter in the world? I am hoping this will be a wake-up call for Sheeple to see just how wretched China is. Meanwhile I will probably have to brush up on my Mandarin.

*sigh*

Gore was talking about CO2 emissions. And he said that some time ago - China passed us in total CO2 emissions a fe months ago (estimated). We still emit more per capita than almost any nation - Australia may have use beat tho.

The Clean Air Act has done wonders for conventional pollutants. I don't think any US city is in the worst 10 or even worst 20 anymore.

China is way bad, as is Mexico City Brazil, etc. Basically it is the rapidly urbanizing 3rd world that has the worst polluted cities.

China plans to clean up - but announced that economic growth comes first - sorta makes sense when they have so many people at such low levels of existence.

[the]

They had a big article on that in the WSJ a few days ago.

The US olympic committee scientists developed some super secret mask, I guess that's what's in the picture? Some people are complaining that it's a slap in the face to the Chinese and their thick air. Others complain that the US is not sharing the mask with others!

China has apparently closed a bunch of the factories around Beijing and restricted car travel in an quick effort to clean up the air, which is apparently better than it was, but still questioned by some.

A lot of the athletes, particularly distance runners, feel like they've trained their whole life for this, and if the mask gives them even a .01 advantage, they want it, politics be damned. Kinda hard to argue with that.

They should have made the masks flesh colored with big toothy smiles on them!

[Rick Lee]

I saw a show on the air in Beijing tonight and they said they'd suspended all concrete pouring for the games. When I was last there about two years ago, even then they were preparing for odd/even license plate restrictions to cut the traffic down to clean up the air. It's pretty bad there and I'm surprised they thought they'd be able to clean things up by curbing stuff just a week or two before the games begin. Walking around in Beijing smells like walking behind a push mower. It's a lot like the old East Germany, but with exponentially more of everything.

[Bill Douglas]

Maybe she should just go home.

I thought the air in China was fine. There is a big difference between fog and smog and I suspect most visitors have got it wrong.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I still want to know how much they paid off the IOC behind the scenes to have the games there.

Sadly, I think some athletes are going to get seriously sick over there. I've done four marathons in my life and can't imagine what it would be like to try and do so in smoggy, polluted, lousy conditions. It's probably worse for the world-class/elite athletes (those guys constantly balance on a knife-edge with respect to their own health all the time anyway).

China is a disaster area and only getting worse... Maybe it'll be a good thing for the world to see that rather than the home-spun illusory images promoted by the totalitarian communist government there.

Heh, heh, heh. I bet the Party officials are schitting their pants right now realizing that they're gonna' have egg-foo-yung all over their faces as a result of this when the ROW realizes what a mess their country is.

I honestly wonder what it takes to have an ego so huge as to think you'll be able to correct major ecosystem/environmental problems simply by wishing them away / sweeping them under the rug by telling people they can't drive for a week. They're gonna' end up looking very, very stupid for this. LOL! Frankly, I hope they do and it ends up being a colossal embarrassment for China. Maybe some good would come out of it.

[look 171]

My parents visited there last year and said the air isn't that bad. the massive construction is one of the problem. Also, the wind carries lthe fine dust from the far away desert. No difference from riding a bike race in the Vegas or riding dry Roubaix in April.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I honestly wonder what it takes to have an ego so huge as to think you'll be able to correct major ecosystem/environmental problems simply by wishing them away / sweeping them under the rug by telling people they can't drive for a week. They're gonna' end up looking very, very stupid for this. LOL! Frankly, I hope they do and it ends up being a colossal embarrassment for China. Maybe some good would come out of it.

I wouldn't hold my breath on this. When we had the '84 games in LA, do you remember anyone talking about the smog or the fed. or even state and local governments being embarassed for it? Did you hear about the air for the Moscow games? All eastern bloc countries had air like China has now. They had fewer people, but their cars were all two-stroke lawnmower engines and their factories had no rules at all. Anyway, the air in China is pretty bad wherever there are a lot of factories or construction. There are almost no cars there more than 5-7 yrs. old, so it's not like they're running with no emissions control systems. It's the factories and building sites that are causing it.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I It's the factories and building sites that are causing it.

And the brown coal people burn to heat their homes. Beijing in the winter can be really nasty.

[jyl]

My mom lived in Beijing for 3 months last summer, she was supposed to stay longer but cut it short, main reason was the heat and pollution.

I remember spending a week in Beijing in 1977, no problem w/ air pollution then. Sad.

China is an environmental mess. But, in all fairness, the US was pretty much a mess until the 1960s or 1970s. Remember the river in OH (?) that actually caught fire? I remember how bad LA air was, 30 years ago. Here in OR the Willamette (runs through Portland) was very polluted back then, even now you still aren't supposed to swim or fish in it.

We have made big strides in cleaning up the US in the last 30-40 years. If and when China makes fixing their environment a priority, they'll make big strides too. Hopefully it won't wait too long - if the Olympics brings that issue front and center, it'll have done a great thing.

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by nostatic

I've been there twice and never felt the need for a mask. There are other issues at play here...

The folks I know that have been there say there are two China's. The one guests and tourists get to see and the reality. They actually go into the villages to the real world factories themselves and claim it is beyond awful.

There are apparently some very nice/modern factories as well and they serve nicely as eyewash for visitors.

[jyl]

I went to China twice a couple years ago, visiting technology companies including the big EMS guys. Conditions were fine - but that's expected, a semiconductor fab or a circuit board factory has to be clean and modern. Back then, the economic deal for the guys (mostly girls, actually) who make your iPod or Dell was pretty reasonable - they would go to Shenzen etc, work for 4-5 years while living in the company dorm, and return to their small village with a significant sum of money, enough to get married or start a small business. Don't know if that has changed. Again, I have no sense of what its like in a textile factory, chemical plant, etc - I assume I was seeing the cream of the Chinese industrial economy.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by lendaddy

The folks I know that have been there say there are two China's. The one guests and tourists get to see and the reality. They actually go into the villages to the real world factories themselves and claim it is beyond awful.

There are apparently some very nice/modern factories as well and they serve nicely as eyewash for visitors.

The olympics aren't being held in the factory cities.

I've been all over Beijing two different times (visiting various middle schools). I'm telling you the air wasn't that bad - certainly no worse than LA. Maybe I got lucky, but that is seen with my eyes and breathed with my lungs. Once in Nov, the other time in May.