I Just Knew This Was a Bad Idea
Can’t they just hold the Olympics indoors?
[W]hen China applied to host the 2008 Olympics, it encountered deep skepticism about its ability to pull off the feat in one of the world’s most populous and polluted cities. There was real concern about athletes choking on chemical-laden air as they ran the 100-meter dash.
Seven years and $40 billion later, the Chinese have had remarkable success on many fronts.
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But Beijing still has not conquered its pollution. Nearly 50 years after Mao Zedong’s “war on nature” felled trees to make room for steel plants in the administrative capital and reversed rivers to provide irrigation, the Chinese government is finding that undoing the environmental damage and turning Beijing into a green showcase in time for the Olympics is no small task. China has only 16 months before 550,000 overseas visitors pile into a city of more than 15 million.
All those new coal-fired power plants won’t help. I used to think marathoners were just anorexic idiots. I still do, but I’m sure going to feel sorry for them next year. Still, it’s only 480.667 times around a basketball court.