August 24, 2008
Beijing Olympics: Concentrations rising but end of Games on clear skies
The Olympics ended today (Sunday) with a spectacular closing ceremony and the handing over of the metaphorical baton to the United Kingdom for the summer games in London in 4 years. Today however was still China's day, as they wrapped up a well-orchestrated Games, including improving the air quality over the last 2 years as well as the last 2 weeks. The Games started with very poor air quality (see 7 August and 9 August) but improved over the last two weeks. Today, although concentrations were rising compared to yesterday, conditions were still pretty good.
For today's MODIS Terra image, I zoomed into Beijing, which shows some light haze to the south and east, but otherwise clear skies.
The air pollution index for PM10 was ranging from 51-78 depending on location, well into the more polluted category of the air pollution index, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, but not too extreme. This high resolution OMI NO2 image (source: KNMI ) shows higher NO2 concentrations in areas of Beijing, consistent with an urban source of pollution.
So, what has the Beijing Olympics shown us about air pollution? Well, industrial and transportation-sourced pollution problems are hard to solve quickly because there exist regional as well as local sources of pollution. However, we have clearly seen that air pollution is an issue that can be solved through public policy. While eastern China still has a long ways to go, the Olympics has brought awareness, as well as technological and policy solutions, which have improved atmospheric conditions--not just in the short term for the athletes and visitors, but also hopefully in the long term for the citizens of China. It was only 50 some years ago that London had air pollution so intense that smog events killed thousands of people. Now the UK's main concern seems to be whether their fireworks display and opening ceremony will meet the spectacle of China's. We can only hope that within the next decade or two, China will have resolved permanently many of its air pollution problems too. The Olympics have given China, I think, a step forward.
Posted by Jill Engel-Cox at August 24, 2008 11:55 PM