Post Olympics Syndrome

August 31, 2008 should be written in the environment history of China. That day, Beijing's air quality reached level 1, the level World Health Organization (WHO) declared safe. Major publications in China praised it was the bluest sky in the city in the last ten years. But will the beautiful sky stay in Beijing after the Olympics?

Credit has to be given to China government who invested $10 billion altogether in battling the air pollution by generating alternative energy for Olympics venues, chasing away cars and closing down factories.

The air quality, especially during the later part of the Olympics, has steadily reached level 2, China's national level of "blue sky day".

Then there was August 31. For anyone who had any experience in hazy Beijing weather, the picture (shown above) seems unreal. A Beijinger said: "I can't believe how blue the sky was that day!"

It's a crucial time for China government to either grasp the opportunity to improve the air quality or act in a typical two-steps-forward-one-step-back stereotype to let people down. For a country that believes in "timing" (天时) for everything, the timing cannot be better.

Beijing citizens have quickly gotten used to the "blue sky" during the Olympics and they obviously want the beautiful days to stay. 80 per cent of the respondents of a survey done by a major Chinese portal Sina.com say they would like the government to continue the same measures, even if it means to replace cars with public transportations for a few days each month.

SEPA (Ministry of the Environmental Protection) official said shortly before the Olympics that most of the measures will be adopted in a long term, though not all of them.

Three weeks after the games, it's time for a reality check. Unfortunately, what I have heard is all the construction sites have resumed work and the sky has gone back to hazy.

Photo credit to Bug