Environment ArchivesApril 30, 200899 days to go!May Day, 2008, 10am, view out our window in downtown Beijing. Opening Ceremony for the Olympics now 99 days away. Getting excited! Update: Reader Paul Camp makes the reasonable suggestion that, in any future photos, I should include the front page from that day's newspaper somewhere in the frame, in the fashion of a kidnap-ransom photo. This is to eliminate the suspicion that I am using the same bleak picture again and again. For the record: stupidest moment in policy ever?Usually I see no reason to chime in on an issue that many other people have discussed. But, perhaps because I've just come back to China, I feel obliged to register a view for the record about destructive nuttiness in my homeland: The pandering and ignorance-across-party-lines represented by the John McCain-Hillary Clinton united front for a temporary reduction in the gasoline tax should make Americans hold their heads in their hands and moan. No one who has thought about this issue thinks that it will actually reduce prices or -- more important -- help the the people disproportionately hurt by $100+/barrel oil and $4 gasoline. And to the extent it has any effect on America's long-term approach to energy policy, transportation, oil dependence, and climate change, the effect will be perverse. I can imagine that John McCain, who boasts about his sketchy command of economics, might consider this a good idea. But the master of policy, Hillary Clinton?? Please. This is embarrassing. It makes me long for the good old days of debating about flag pins on the lapel. And I wonder: has there been bipartisan agreement to stupider effect in, say, the last fifty years? The US Senate's 88-2 vote in favor of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 doesn't count: they didn't know what lay ahead. Hillary Clinton, at least, knows why what she is saying is wrong. I will pay for a year's subscription to the Atlantic for anyone who can come up with a more foolishly destructive bipartisan example. Update: The 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force vote that paved the way for war in Iraq doesn't count either. That vote reflected terrible judgment, in my view, but not outright stupidity or, as with the current gas-tax charade, certain foreknowledge that the policy being recommended would do no good. April 19, 2008My two home townsRedlands, California (view out the window from my dad's house, orange groves across the street) Beijing, China (view out the window from our apartment, just before I left) March 18, 2008First sandstorm of the seasonOut our window, Beijing, 10:30am March 18, 2008.
143 days until the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but the sandstorms will have ended by then. Out the same window, on a nice day last fall:
February 29, 2008Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Du (Beijing air watch dept)(Updated, below.) - Making vivid what it might mean to "do whatever it takes" to close down factories, traffic, etc long enough before the August 8 opening ceremonies to make the air acceptable: One plant affected by the Olympic cleanup is a Beijing Eastern factory in southeast Beijing, which will be closed by the end of June, according to the Xinhua news agency. Workers at the plant confirmed that the factory -- which employs about 1,000 people -- will be suspending operations in May and reopening in a new facility in southwest Beijing at year's end. Many workers don't know what they will do in the interim, or if they will continue to receive their wages. "No one knows what will happen tomorrow," one worker said.
"We need help from the media," said Mr. Du. "Tell them what you see with your own eyes."
Update: What I am seeing with my own eyes, the next day:
February 20, 2008OK, I really will stop after thisBeijing skyline, February 21, 2008, 10am. 169 days to go until the Olympics
As mentioned earlier here and here , in a reverse-backflip way it's been heartening to see the air quality deteriorate so catastrophically as China goes back to work after a two-week holiday. After all, that suggests that the closed factories and limited traffic during the holiday had some effect. By that logic, I should be growing more heartened by the day. February 18, 2008Feeling more encouraged stillIf yesterday's Beijing skies were weirdly encouraging, I have to feel even better today! Guomao, looking southward, the city's second day back at work after Spring Festival.
Last on this topic for a while. Update: Here is how the sky looked about a week ago, when the city was shut down and a ferocious wind had howled in from someplace cold. This is of course the new CCTV tower, whose two legs have recently been joined. It's not far from the scene above.
February 17, 2008Weirdly, I find this encouragingAfter ten days -- or ten months, I've lost track now -- of nonstop explosion-enhanced welcome of the new Year Of The Rat and Of The Olympics, Beijing appears to have returned to work today. That's what I judge from the jammed roads this morning, and the jammed sidewalks this past weekend, full of people carrying suitcases as they come back to town. And it's what I judge from the air. It's been quite nice these last ten days. But this morning, at 10am, we have:
In the short run, plenty discouraging! So what's the good news here? If closing down China's factories and cars for even two weeks made a noticeable difference, maybe there is some hope that the widely-expected months-long closedown before the Olympics will do the trick. Especially if the famous Chinese weather-modification teams can arrange for some of the gelid Siberian blasts that have roared through the city in the past, blue-sky week to reappear in August. Just a thought... February 8, 2008Six months to go!Six months from this morning, the first Olympic competitions will start in Beijing. Opening ceremonies: 8/8/08 at 8:08pm. The next day, August 9, let the games begin! At 9am this morning, February 9, with the city practically shut down for Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year), and with the atmosphere cleaned out by an arctic blast from Siberia or somewhere, it looks pretty nice outside! (For past comparisons, including the same out-the-window view on other days, go here.) Because of the glare, it's slightly hard to see in this picture, but roads that are ordinarily jammed have virtually no cars:
An omen that this new Year of the Rat will bring clearer skies, if not fewer cars? And an environmentally-successful Olympic games? Let's hope. December 21, 2007Last comment of the year on the Beijing air situationAs promised earlier, I'm not planning to belabor the Beijing-air question while the Olympics are still more than half a year away. And as stated many times, I hope the Beijing Olympics will be a big success. China deserves to feel good about what it is putting together, and it will be best for the whole world if the Chinese people at large feel satisfied about this huge effort. I'm not being flip here: I'm rooting for China to pull this off just right and bask in deserved praise. Also, these last three or four weeks in Beijing have included a lot of nice-seeming, if cold, days. But the juxtaposition of the story below, from in today's Olympian, a weekly supplement to the state-controlled China Daily in the months leading up to the Olympics; and the picture below that, a view out the apartment window at 1pm today; and the almost unbelievable NASA satellite shot that is the third image, taken on December 17, a recent "nice-seeming" day, prompts reference to a few other observations. (The satellite image came via Danwei.org and BeijingAir.)
Continue reading "Last comment of the year on the Beijing air situation" » December 9, 2007Winter day in BeijingTemperature in high 30s F, low single-digits C. Cats keeping warm (Gongti area)
November 20, 2007I think I'm acclimating!As my wife headed out for language class a few minutes ago, I (sincerely) said: It looks like a very nice day!
November 16, 2007Are foreigners dissing China by noticing the smog?After the jump are parts of an intriguing note from Shelly Kraicer of Beijing. He is a Canadian writer and film-festival programmer, based in China for the last four years, who runs a web site on Chinese film, ChineseCinema.org I don't know him personally. His note is in response to my repeated ."sky is falling" screeds about the disaster of air quality in Beijing nine months before the Olympics. (Note: today, November 16, was a pretty nice day.) His note raises a question I can't do more than acknowledge at the moment: whether the Western focus on environmental catastrophe in China is, in some way, part of a long process of belittling the Chinese. He recounts the comments of a Chinese media friend: ...who pointed out that the focus on pollution before the Olympics is a phenomenon of the typical inability of the Western press to focus on more than one idea at a time, when they're thinking of China (if at all). ... Now the big idea, Olympics branch, is Pollution Disaster! She pointed out that Athens' big Olympic story was Preparation DIsaster! But since, here, things seem to be generally on schedule, that story is unavailable. So the foul air story is its replacement. I think that what she's describing has an all too predictable undercurrent of looking down from lofty developed Western heights to squalid undeveloped Third World depths ("tut tut, of course they just can't get it right, the way we know we could"). At a strictly logical level, I know that these things are true: * I personally hope the Olympics turn out to be a big success for China. I'm convinced that the general public here sees them, or has been led to see them, as an occasion of pride for China as a whole, not just "the regime." It would be better for everyone if China ends up feeling happy and successful in its efforts than if it feels embarrassed or, worse, disrespected. * I genuinely view environmental carnage as Problem Number One for China itself, and as the biggest problem posed by China for the rest of the world. Fewer Chinese people feel as strongly about this because, I think, fewer of them have seen how it is elsewhere. * And I think that to raise alarms about the air and water in China is fundamentally supportive of the people of China rather than in any way dismissive of them. After all, they are the ones who breathe this air their whole lives. But I know that more than strict logic is involved in these questions. The note, below, is worth thinking about. Continue reading "Are foreigners dissing China by noticing the smog?" » November 13, 2007I wish this were a jokeWhat I caught my wife shopping for on line just now:
An "I Can Breathe!" anti-pollution mask. Sigh.
I'll wait until I see some of the local Beijingers resorting to masks. Even a middle-aged duffer has pride. And actually, it's been nice today. November 8, 2007Pandas en masseStory about the Wolong Panda Reserve, the one place on earth where you can see herds of pandas, now out in our December issue. Story here. (Subscribers only; subscribe!) Free narrated slide show here. While I'm at it, Pandas International site, where Americans can make tax-deductible donations to support Wolong and other panda protection efforts, here. Young pandas in action: chow time:  Young panda in repose:  Not just a beautiful backhand: brainy, too!(With update, below) I see from outside-world reports that Justine Henin might give up the chance to defend her Olympic gold medal in tennis, because she is so concerned about what the air in Beijing might do to her lungs. She has asthma and recently had to drop out of the last tournament she attempted to play here. As noted earlier, I am against the idea of any threatened official boycotts of the Olympic games. The Beijing Olympics have become (despite many local grumbles) a source of pride for Chinese people broadly, not just for the regime. But I wonder whether we'll see many more individual "boycotts" of the sort Henin has mentioned. Continue reading "Not just a beautiful backhand: brainy, too!" » November 6, 2007This is becoming less amusing (Olympic air-quality watch)Today, noon, downtown Beijing: I like the painterly juxtaposition of the splash of red, from the (ubiquitous) Olympic poster at lower right, with the chemical gray-brown-ochre of what lies above. It's not fog. I'll keep taking such pictures but will stop posting them. The point is made. But while I'm at it, a couple more after the jump. Continue reading "This is becoming less amusing (Olympic air-quality watch)" » November 5, 2007Maybe Nov 3 is out too?Only days ago I was bragging about how crisp, clear, beautiful, and blue the Beijing skies were on the first three days of November: Thursday the 1st through Saturday the 3rd. Maybe November should be Olympic month? Then it turned out that, by November 4th and 5th, things weren't looking so great any more. Maybe the 1st through 3rd as a concentrated Olympic schedule? Now I find a report from an American who actually went for a run on that same blue-sky Saturday, Nov 3 afternoon that had raised my spirits -- only to be laid up as if with a sudden case of emphysema. As a reminder, here is how it looked that day:  And here is what it was like to go for a run: Well, apparently poor air quality doesn't begin to engulf your lungs until they are stressed... With each passing step it became more painfully obvious that the air had overtaken my lungs. For perspective, it was like a having a large man press against my chest and every attempt to gasp for more air only made him heavier. Small world dept: He was running along (a different part of ) the very same road shown in the blue-sky picture above, within an hour or so of the time I took it. Which means -- something, maybe that there is stuff in the air even when it's blue.* So, I guess the Olympic target dates are down to Nov 1 and 2. And if you're thinking that Nov 6 might work, here is the view out the apartment window this morning, with 276 days to the Olympics: *Small world #2: The runner is a young man named J.P. Fielder, who was with a visiting delegation from the National Association of Manufacturers. When I happened to meet him yesterday at a discussion session, he looked very much like a healthy 20-something specimen training for his next marathon, which I gather he is doing. He just won't do much more training here, I'm guessing. Thanks to Carter Wood of the NAM for posting Fielder's account. Maybe they should hold the Olympics on Nov 1 through 3?In Beijing the first three days of November were spectacular, as they had been last year. Yesterday, November 4, some brown and grey in the sky. Today, some more:  Looking south from our apartment on Jianguo Road near East Third Ring Road. Two hundred and seventy-seven days to go now. It's probably time to take a picture of the sky every day as the Games draw near, for later chronicling purposes to see how and when the campaign to clean up the air finally kicked in. Assuming and hoping that it does. November 3, 2007Maybe they just need to hold the Olympics in November?Two hundred and seventy-nine days until the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, according to a big sign downtown. And -- unlike some other days -- it couldn't be more beautiful! My family's first two days of residence in Beijing coincide with two days of spectacular weather. Robin's-egg blue skies; not a hint of pollution; the briskness that follows the passage of a cold front from Mongolia/Siberia, without the actual cold. Looking north from near the Guomao subway stop, toward the half-constructed new CCTV building by Rem Koolhaas:
Looking east along Jianguo Road:
I was here one year ago today, at the time of an African presidents' summit, and it was just as pretty. Maybe this, as opposed to mid-summer, is the time for international games? Just a thought. October 20, 2007Ever wonder what Chinese reforestation looks like?Well, in case you did, here's the answer. At least, this is what it looked like last month in Gansu province, a very poor western part of the country that also contains some very beautiful scenery. In less scenic parts of Gansu, including near the capital of Lanzhou, hillsides were long ago stripped of trees and shrubs so they could be turned into little terraced farming plots or grazing areas for sheep. Many then eroded and turned into pure wasteland. That's where the trees are going back in. It appears to work this way: local farmers are paid to girdle the hillsides with row after row of little foot-wide terraces. They plant trees on each terrace. Somehow they must get water to the trees (it's a dry region). On a few hillsides, we saw thickets of saplings 8 or 10 feet tall, which looked like they would survive. Most hillsides look like the ones below (and after the jump). Now you know. (Scale note: the baby trees in this first shot are about three feet tall; they're shown on a very small hill.)
Continue reading "Ever wonder what Chinese reforestation looks like?" » October 12, 2007Gore laureatusThrough odd circumstances, I ended up introducing Al Gore at a technology-world conference 36 hours before the Peace Prize news was announced, and then seeing him from the back of the room at his post-award appearance this morning in Palo Alto (below). Three quick points:
1) Whatever he must be feeling inside, Gore's statement was as non triumphalist-sounding as imaginable. He said that the recognition was all the more significant because he had the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; that he hoped this would help get out the message about a planetary emergency; that he would go to Oslo on behalf of the thousands of people who had been working on this issue for years; etc. He allowed himself not one displayed note of "I told you so." Update: Yes, of course I understand the Uriah Heepish concept of "ostentatious modesty." But in real time, and in the circumstances, it was an impressive statement. October 7, 2007Oh, greatFive minutes after the movers show up, to collect all the goods from our Shanghai apartment for shipment to Beijing, I see, via my Atlantic colleagues, this new report on the most- and least-livable among 72 of the world's major cities. The good news for my wife and me is that we're leaving city #71, the next-to-worst! The bad news ...
But, hey, life's not just about livability. It's pretty interesting here. October 6, 2007Olympic air-quality: the experts speakCaijing magazine is an indispensable Chinese publication, conveniently now with an English-language website. Its name, 财经, means economics and finance. Its editor, Hu Shuli, is one of the most influential women in China. She and her staff well understand that the one part of the Chinese media with considerable latitude to expose and reveal is the business press. They have consistently used a lot of the operating room this allows them.* In the latest issue: news on the ever-tantalizing "can Beijing possibly clear up its air before the Olympics?" question. (Previously on this theme: here, here, here, here, and, in more encouraging mode, here.) The magazine interviews Zhao Fengtong, vice mayor of Beijing with responsibility for traffic and related issues. The Asian Wall Street Journal has an English version of the full interview (subscribers only) -- Caijing's English site has only a summary. September 25, 2007318 days to the Olympics: a clear(er) sky day in Beijing!Two months ago, the skies over Beijing resembled some kind of nuclear disaster. This was the morning view near Chaoyang Park on July 25:
Now-- much better!! September 24, 5pm, looking north and west over Chaoyang Park: 
Central Business District, earlier that afternoon:  If this doesn't look like much of an improvement, then the pictures aren't really doing their job. Mere byproduct of the change of seasons, with Fall usually the least-polluted time of the year? Conceivably an indication of something more? As my wife and I prepare to move here, naturally we hope (as opposed to assume) that this is a pre-Olympic trend rather than just a seasonal fluke. August 23, 2007Olympics air-quality countdown: first results are inFriends in Beijing said that the recent four-day experiment in ordering half the cars off the road was encouraging in two ways: It really sped up commute times (for those still driving), and it reflected some civic spirit about the Games. I'd be skeptical if this impression came solely from the (state-controlled) press, but independent email and blog reports suggest that people mainly did observe the restrictions -- only odd-number license plates some days, only evens the other days -- and demonstrated some "let's improve our city for the Olympics!" sentiment about it. Unfortunately, by all accounts other than those of the state media, the experiment did little or nothing about Beijing's woeful air quality. For instance, this report from the recent "Beijing Air" blog, or this from the Guardian's Jonathan Watts:
From the start, everyone has assumed that the government would do whatever it takes to make the atmosphere acceptable for the Games. The question is becoming: will "whatever it takes" be enough? I hope more experiments are in store. August 19, 2007More on actually avoiding lead-covered toysYou learn something every day. Recently I made the off-hand comment that, short of a home metallurgy lab, families couldn't tell whether the paint on their children's toys contained too much lead. Well, it turns out (with thanks to readers) that there are fairly cheap counterparts to the home metallurgy labs, for instance this one. This doesn't change the main point -- people really shouldn't have to be checking toys this way after they've bought them, any more than they should have to check the drinking water for e. coli or each carton of eggs for salmonella. This is what public health departments are for. But it could be useful info for people who already have questionable products at home. August 10, 2007I guess I wasn't hallucinating (Beijing Olympics watch, cont.)I spent Wednesday of this week going with my family to Nanjing, which is fascinating but which on that day fully justified its reputation as one of the "Three Furnaces of China" (with Wuhan and Chongqing). It was so hot and the trains there and back were so packed that soon after we reached Shanghai we fell asleep with the room lights still on and the TV news droning in the background. In that hallucinatory state I half-noticed the shots of celebrations from Beijing, as the one year countdown to the Olympics began. Then I thought I heard the head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, say something truly astonishing: that the air in Beijing was so bad that some events (like, the ones where athletes have to breathe) might have to be postponed! In the morning I couldn't be sure whether that had been dream or reality. Continue reading "I guess I wasn't hallucinating (Beijing Olympics watch, cont.)" » August 8, 2007One year to go until 08/08/08!Today was Olympic Countdown day in China, with the opening ceremonies in Beijing scheduled for one year from tonight. Eight -- ba -- is the luckiest Chinese number, so the games will begin on 08/08/08, at 8 pm. Auspicious enough for me! Two items of media interest from the festivities: * CNN International began its report talking about what is obviously the main deal-breaking threat to the Olympics: the air. The correspondent had gotten far enough into the story to say, "Some foreign athletes fear..." and then the screen went blank for the next two minutes or so. The same PR wizards who were at the satellite cut-off switch yesterday were apparently at work again today. * As part of its extensive coverage today, the (state-controlled, English-language, China's-face-to-the-world) China Daily had a lead editorial that mentioned every possible threat to the game -- except the one that matters:
July 27, 2007Now 377 days to the OlympicsTo the obvious question -- how could you possibly have a major athletic competition in conditions like these?? -- there are four main answers from people in Beijing:
(Central Business District, Beijing, 3pm, July 27, 2007 ) July 25, 2007Beijing Olympics countdown: air quality deptThe countdown clock on the highway in from Beijing Capital Airport says 379 days before the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. Or maybe 378. In any case, just over a year to deal with situations like this:
View to the south, July 26, 8:30am, from apartment building in the Chaoyang Park neighborhood of Beijing. The obscured buildings in the "distance" are perhaps 100 yards away. Another View From My Window {tm} shot after the jump. Continue reading "Beijing Olympics countdown: air quality dept" » June 11, 2007Words of Wisdom from a Chinese officialNo, not about the Sopranos. Didn’t see any of this season; don’t want to hear or read about the finale; will get the whole-season boxed set for $5 or so from the local dealer when it’s ready in the next few days. According to today’s (English-language, state-controlled) China Daily, the vice-minister of Construction, Qiu Baoxing, has noticed that non-stop bulldozing, paving, and skyscraper-building have been less than ideal for China’s cultural and architectural patrimony. Indeed, he goes so far as to compare the cultural/architectural effects of today’s gilded age construction boom to those of China’s two outright catastrophes of the past half century: the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Continue reading "Words of Wisdom from a Chinese official" » May 20, 2007Not 100% sure this would be legal in AmericaBeautiful evening in Bangalore; big schooners of draft Kingfisher beer on the garden-veranda of a luxurious hotel in the center of the city. Evening falls. To perfect the experience and make sure we are not bothered by mosquitoes attracted to the ornamental pond nearby, a helpful touch from the hotel management: our own chemical fogger.
May 3, 2007My first sandstormA few days ago in Shanghai: 5pm. Threatening skies all day, walk out of a building into the kind of gusty wind that, back in Washington, would make me think, A thunderstorm is about to break. It rains hard for a minute, but mainly there’s grit. Suddenly my eyes are full of it, it’s on my teeth and the back of my throat (maybe I should hawwwwwkkk and spit?), I can feel it when I breathe. The sky is a yellowish color I’ve heard about as a pre-tornado warning. Sandstorm! At least a little one, enough to make me wonder about the dreaded blasts from the desert toward Beijing.
The view of the ochreish sky when I got home. April 23, 2007Is it just "fog"?Or perhaps "mist"? As mentioned earlier, the relatively grim vista on Sunday morning -- Earth Day! -- could have been affected by weather that led to rain on Sunday afternoon. And today, Monday, it's actually bright and pretty outside. But a friend reminded me of what the cityscape looked like (from a higher floor in the same building), not long ago on a dry day. He calls his picture, below, "Shanghai Sunrise," since he was looking east toward the daybreak over Pudong. It features a sun whose color can't easily be explained by "mist" or "fog."
April 22, 2007When people say China has a pollution problem... (updated).... this is the kind of thing they are talking about. Shanghai skyline, from our apartment near People's Square, 8:30am China time, Sunday morning, April 22, 2007. And Shanghai's not even that bad, compared with most other big cities.
UPDATE: After the jump are more photos of the blear, followed by the way the same scenes look on a very nice day here. Continue reading "When people say China has a pollution problem... (updated)" » April 10, 2007Signs that the apocalypse is near (Shanghai edition)1) On a beautiful spring afternoon in the city, the gingko trees along (relatively) charming Da Gu Lu, beginning to leaf out, are filled with .... twittering birds! Where did they come from? More ominous thought: how long can they last? 2) On Chengdu Lu, beneath the North-South Elevated Highway, a taxicab roars up to a red light, like always, and prepares like always to mow down the pedestrians in a marked crosswalk, with the green light in their favor. But a uniformed "traffic assistant" steps bravely into the cab's path, Continue reading "Signs that the apocalypse is near (Shanghai edition)" » March 19, 2007Silent SpringA week ago I noticed a dark object arcing across the sky, at eye level from our 22nd-floor apartment in Shanghai. I just caught it in peripheral vision, rather than looking at it directly. Without thinking consciously, I began speculating: maybe a hawk? Maybe one of those turkey vultures that seem to show up against stormy springtime skies? Maybe just a crow, or a large and very dark pigeon? Then I turned and saw what it was: a black heavy-duty plastic trash bag, swooping up and down in the turbulent wind. I thought a minute more and realized what I had been seeing but not noticing through the previous months: there are no birds in big Chinese cities. |
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