Make lasting improvements

Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008 | midnight

For residents of Beijing, gray skies choked with smog are all too common. And for athletes planning to compete in the Summer Olympic Games there in August, the poor air quality could hinder their performances.

A U.N. report says that Beijing's particulate matter, which reaches more than 400 micrograms per cubic meter on many days, was eight times the level recommended by the World Health Organization in 2006.

But as The New York Times reported last week, Beijing's good air quality days, though more frequent, still don't happen often enough or consistently enough to avoid potential effects on this summer's Olympians.

Chinese officials have spent more than $12 billion to improve air quality since Beijing won its 2008 Olympics bid in 2001. But photos of Beijing today show a city that looks much like the smoggy 19th-century cities of the Industrial Revolution.

With the Summer Olympic Games now just eight months away, Beijing officials are considering some temporary measures in and around the city to clear the region's skies, including closing some factories and imposing traffic restrictions during the games.

But these are Band-Aids on a problem that is certain to return. The government has instituted the use of cleaner coal-burning plants, but it is not curbing the construction of new coal plants or replacing them with alternative, noncoal energy sources.

New construction, which significantly increases the amount of particulate matter in the air, shows no sign of abating.

And little is being done to reduce the estimated 1,200 cars and trucks that are added to Beijing's traffic mix daily, the Times reports.

The Summer Olympic Games will force Chinese officials to see Beijing through the eyes of the rest of the world, and it is obvious they don't like what they see.

If Chinese officials want to truly change the way the rest of the world perceives Beijing, they need to make significant -- and lasting -- improvements to China's environmental policies.