Surprise! Chinese Pull 1.3 Million Cars Off The Road And Air Quality Improves

A test run of traffic controls to clear Beijing's smoggy skies for next year's Olympic Games successfully improved air quality, state media reported Tuesday, saying conditions were "fairly good" despite a constant gray haze.

Air pollution has emerged as a key problem for Beijing as it gears up for the Olympics. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge warned during a visit earlier this month that some Olympic competitions might be postponed if the city did not clean up the pollution.

Air quality was "fairly good" during the four-day trial that ended Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.


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enthusiastx11 - 8/21/2007 12:55:22 PM

-1 Boost

and pollution is this bad with only a few percent of the chinese owning cars. their pollution is the worst in the world.

Agent009 - 8/21/2007 1:05:07 PM

+2 Boost

That 1.3 million vehicles pulled was for the greater Beijing area I assume.

Sedulous - 8/21/2007 1:46:48 PM

+1 Boost

worse as a whole, but not nearly as bad as Americans... Ignorant Americans always use that line to get out of saving energy, but America is the worst consumer of resources in the world, no matter what anyone says

Agent009 - 8/21/2007 2:47:59 PM

+3 Boost

302 Million people consume a lot of stuff.

Agent009 - 8/21/2007 2:58:16 PM

+1 Boost

Actually the US is the 17th largest user of oil per capita in the world. go look it up.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con_percap-energy-oil-consumption-per-capita

XYZZ - 8/22/2007 4:53:43 AM

+1 Boost

009-

i just checked the chart at that site.

frankly, i think it's a perfect example of "lying with statistics!"

ALL the countries thru #16 have relatively small populations. so of course they will rank high, on a per capita measure.

how about giving a link that shows the TOTAL consumption? i'd venture to guess, the u.s. will be #1 there!

XYZZ - 8/22/2007 4:58:29 AM

0 Boost

as you said, 302 million people consume a LOT of stuff. INCLUDING energy in all forms, and oil (cheap for us, due to gov't tax and social policies).

we likely are the #1 country in the size of our gas guzzler fleet. and sheer no. of cars and trucks of ALL types.

TehShibbs - 8/22/2007 8:20:36 PM

+1 Boost

We're also spread out over a very vast land mass, considering places like China where people practically build houses on top of other houses.

XYZZ - 8/23/2007 5:29:01 AM

+1 Boost

what do you EXPECT the chinese to do? theirs is a mountainous country. they have a population more than 3x larger than ours, in roughly the same land area.

on a per capita basis, they consume FAR LESS than we do. those among them who own cars, don't OVERBUY on size and gas guzziliness, like americans tend to do.

once more people there REACT to their horrible air pollution, they may go even further than we do to correct it, just as japan did.