No Car Day in China

September 21st, 2007 Alex

As the 2008 Summer Olympics is counting down, China is continually preparing the country to give the best possible image. With so much negative media attention given to toys, lead, fake stuff and manufacturing recently in the headlines, it is going to take a lot of work to recover. I am sure the manufacturing plants are going to take a small hit due to all the negative media but it probably will not make any significant factors and will most likely be for the better as the plants and laws will get stricter in making sure that it improves.

This saturday, China is going to have a “no-car day” in 108 cities to try to clean up the smog. They are promoting everyone to not drive and get back on the bicycles that once filled up the city streets. Beijing has already been closing down the worst polluting factories as well as switching thousands of homes from using coal to gas in attempts to improve the air quality. The good news is that the country is doing a lot to help improve the air quality and paying attention to the environmental concerns. My only concern is that only time will tell whether the country is really giving a damn about the country or all of this is just to make some media mentions to hype up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in making sure that the weather will be great during the Olympics. The Olympics is a very big deal since it is an international extravaganza and China is spending billions of dollars in making sure that the event will be the best that it can be. Once the Olympics is over, a lot of the effects that have been done to improve the environment will be around but will the country continue to improve? I am not trying to bash my native country but I just hope that this is not just all a temporary concern but that everything they are doing is making them realize that changes do need to happen and that this is just the beginning.

via Reuters

Entry Filed under: Environment