By Andy Jackson
Like many parts of China, Beijing has levels of toxic dust and other forms of pollution well above the maximum recommended levels set by World Health Organization. In fact, Beijing has the second worst air quality in the world after New Delhi according to the United Nations Environment Program.
The Chinese and Beijing city governments have been trying to control the problem ahead of this year's Olympic games and will spend about $13 billion to clean the city's air. They are apparently making some progress. The city's air has improved to the point were it is only three times dirtier than recommended levels on most days.
Construction, which causes massive amounts of dust and other pollution as large sections of the city are destroyed and rebuilt, will be banned for two months before and during the games. Factories are being closed or relocated away from the city.
Traffic will be cut almost in half during the games. Cars will only be allowed to run every other day, based on whether their license ends in an odd or even number.
Chinese officials believe that they will have Beijing's pollution under control by this summer, but officials of some Olympic committees are taking their own measures to deal with what they expect will be continued air quality problems.
In what will probably be a trend, Australia is, for the first time, adding an asthma specialist to the medical team that will be accompanying its athletes to the games. Other teams are taking similar measures.
Some teams plan to deal with the problem by basing their teams in other areas and flying them into Beijing at the last possible moment, which might make Olympic village a lonely place populated by athletes from poorer countries. The British team has already stated that it will train in Macau.
The American Olympic Committee is reportedly planning to base at least part of its team in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province before and during the games.
They had better hope the prevailing winds hold this summer.
Summer, when southeasterly winds bring monsoonal rains, is the only time of year when Korea is spared being downwind from China. Seasonal wins during much of the rest of the year carry Chinese pollution strait to Korea.
Of course, the specter of toxic air from China is most noticeable in the spring, when waves of 'yellow dust' from the ever expanding deserts in northern China blanket Korea.
The dust itself is not new, having been recorded as far back as the Korean Three Kingdoms period. What is new is the number and intensity of yellow dust storms. Desertification in Northern China, caused by overgrazing and several decades of poorly planned and regulated industrial development, has cause the waves of yellow dust to become larger and more frequent.
The dust, while irritating, is not especially dangerous by itself. What is dangerous is the cocktail of sulfur, heavy metals (such as mercury) and other pollutants the dust storms pick up as they cross northern China.
Korea and Japan have been working with the Chinese to try to stem the desertification of northern China, so far with little effect.
Even if they succeed in reducing the number and severity of the dust storms, the prevailing winds will continue to carry toxic air from China to Korea. That is the real problem that needs to be addressed.
To be fair to China, massive pollution is certainly not just a Chinese problem.
As late as the 1970s and 1980s, many parts of Europe and North American had major pollution problems. It was only last year that China passed the United States to become the world's greatest producer of carbon dioxide emissions.
Some of the dust hitting Korea every year comes from Mongolia and some comes from as far away as Uzbekistan, where Soviet-era policies turned much of the Aral Sea into a massive toxic dust bowl.
But China is a major culprit for Korea's air pollution problems and, despite the clean air hype concerning the Olympics, there does not seem to be much will within the Chinese system to address the issue. Factories removed from Beijing have simply reopened elsewhere and continue to contribute to China's massive consumption of coal. From an environmental standpoint, China is an unholy union of rapid industrialization with communist-style management, oversight and corruption.
Unfortunately for Korea, Seoul has little influence on Beijing and international pollution agreements like the Kyoto Protocol do nothing to address Chinese pollution (naturally, China is a strong backer of Kyoto). China currently produces as much pollution as the United States despite having an economy a fifth the size in GDP.
What will happen to Korea when China's economy becomes half the size of America's around 2020?
Andy Jackson teaches American government in the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at andyinrok@lycos.com