Is Healthy Air Bad?

Among the many good things about these Olympics, however, Ramanathan insists, is that they will not only increase awareness of the worldwide problem of air pollution but also the present danger of climate change--and the surprising connection between the two: "I'm not a policymaker, and there's no magic bullet. But we have to be aware of both the climate-change aspect and the pollution aspect. China has done a good thing by cleaning up the air for these Games, but they are all at the mercy of the winds. Beijing remains a very polluted city."

The British Broadcasting Corp.'s Beijing bureau confirms this, reporting that its pollution-measuring device has shown readings this week for tiny particles of soot and other particulate matter well above the World Health Organization's recommended levels for healthy air.

Unmoved, Chinese officials, and even some non-Chinese members of the International Olympic Committee, continue to preposterously insist that the thick yellow haze blanketing parts of Beijing this week is fog, not smog, and that the air is just fine. And they insist that if the air does get worse, they can force as many as 90 percent of the automobiles off the streets and close even more factories. But the athletes aren't breathing any sighs of relief.

© 2008