People are wondering whether Beijing will be too polluted a place this summer for Olympic athletes to compete at the highest level of their games. Ethiopia’s marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie already has dropped out of the event, blaming pollution. He has asthma and is concerned that China’s famous pollution problem will worsen his condition.
Conclusions may be being made in haste. Los Angeles suffered with some of the world’s worst smog before it hosted the Games. Athens was no poster child for clear skies, nor for that matter was Seoul. But all of these cities took action to reduce pollution: they closed factories, regulated traffic, and got people to take public transportation. LA, for example, cleaned up its air quality some 20% in just a matter of months. Beijing could do the same thing.
I fear, however, that we are missing the point and a grand opportunity with the Beijing Olympics this year. We can encourage the city to take temporary action to clean up its act — then seize that moment to prolong the cleanup, make it sustainable.
It’s a way in to making a better planet– and we shouldn’t waste it.
Thomas M. Kostigen is The New York Times bestselling coauthor of