Ordinary people need clean air as much as athletes
- Source: Global Times
- [21:41 August 16 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Yu Jincui
It seems that every world-class sports event held in China is intertwined with a tough battle by the host city to improve air quality.
Every time there is an international sports game in China, the host governments make great efforts to achieve better air quality. They swallow up the desire for a higher GDP, list numerous heavy polluting factories, ask them to make improvements and close down those that don't meet environmental standards.
Beijing's efforts to improve energy efficiency and air quality for the 2008 Olympic Games are still fresh in people's minds. Guangzhou, the host city for the 16th Asian Games, is keen on getting worldwide attention for a "Green Asian Games."
The 16th Asian Games, the world's second largest sports event in terms of participants, will be held in Guangzhou from November 12 to 27 this year. Since Guangzhou won the right to host the games in July 2004, the local government has been concentrating on cleaning up the city's air.
It is a tough job for the hosts. As one of the industrial centers in the Pearl River Delta and with a population of nearly 15 million, Guangzhou has been confronted with serious pollution problems for many years. The burden has been aggravated since the event is at a time of year that, over the past three decades, has consistently been Guangzhou's worst for air quality.
Earlier this month, the Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau held a press conference, stating that after facing great pressures to clean up the skies, the local government had prepared some prompt and effective measures to achieve the environmental benchmarks set for the Asian Games, including strictly restricting the production of some heavy polluting factories and reducing car traffic around the city by implementing the odd-even license plate rule which proved successful during the Beijing Games.
Obviously, Guangzhou is doing the best it can, right up to the last minute. And special efforts should certainly be made to meet the environmental demands of athletes, if we want their lungs to survive the 100-meter sprint. However, we shouldn't be too keen on cheering Guangzhou on.
In June this year, Zhang Guangning, the Party secretary of Guangzhou, said that the government was determined to ensure better environment conditions for the upcoming Asian Games, even at the expense of local GDP.
It was a laudable move for the Guangzhou government to put the interests of environment ahead of economic benefits, though not because they realized how important protecting the environment is in the process of industrialization, but because they were under the international spotlight.
The prompt measures adopted by the Guangzhou government may temporarily improve the air quality during the Asian Games. But if the city's efforts are just to show the world a green "face" for the moment, there should be a question mark on conditions after the games.
It seems local governments don't want to go green until black clouds at international events threaten their sense of face. If these factories were churning out pollution so badly, why weren't they banned already?
But world-class sports competitions have been as the catalyst for air improvement in China. Take the 2008 Olympic Games, where environmental condition in Beijing was greatly improved through the municipal government's unremitting efforts to achieve a "Green Olympics." These improvements have lasted, although growing traffic problems threaten to drive Beijing's air back to the bad old days.
International sports events do make contributions to the Chinese environmental protection. But they're not enough on their own. Blue skies and fresh air should be a goal cities strive for everyday, not just when international athletes are in town.
If Guangzhou makes the same efforts to provide clean air for every citizen as it has to cater to Asian athletes, then it will really deserve praise.
The author is a reporter with the Global Times. forum@globaltimes.com.cn
