PhilCam doesn't see much at 8 a.m. on Thursday

BEIJING -- Here are two shots from PhilCam, taken at 8 a.m. on Thursday in Beijing. The Bird's Nest is barely visible in either photo. Blogger Phil Hersh's report: "By far the ugliest air to date.... You almost cannot see the massive stadium at all."

In contrast, here's a link to a PhilCam photo from Aug. 2.

Comments

[hmm]

it may very well be....FOG! Why always jump to negative conclusions, in this case, "smog" whenever we deal with anything Chinese?

[Esther]

It's hard to see (pun intended) how the Chinese are going to clear this up in two days.

[htownbrown]

dear hmm:

nice try playing "devil's advocate", but the air is like that pretty much every day there. the PM10 (particulate matter in the air) is double, and sometimes triple, accpetable levels.

i spent a few weeks in BJ about a month ago and it was like that constantly. it's just plain ugly. visibility is limited to just a few hundred yards all around you.

they started "seeding the clouds" (i.e. shooting chemicals into the sky to force it to rain) and have taken about half of the cars off the road for a given day in an effort to clear the air up. also, construction (another contributor to the pollution) is supposed to stop at some point even though they are still franically trying to complete projects for the games.

i will admit that there was one nice, blue-sky day (saturday, july 12th to be exact) while i was in beijing. i really couldn't beleive it based on how the other days had looked. i guess we'll have to wait and see how it looks for the games. although i wouldn't be suprised if they edit the footage first to make it appear that it's clean.

lastly, you should do your research before posting stuff. china doesn't have the air quality regulations that we have in the US. why do you think so many things are "made in china"? because it's cheap to manufacture stuff with no regard for your pollution.

i hope this info enlightens you a little bit.