Olympics 2008: race to beat the smog
Updated on 08 August 2007
Only one year to go till the 2008 Beijing Olympics - but can they reduce the smog levels in time?
China celebrated the official countdown to the Olympics with a spectacular firework display in Tiananmen Square this evening, attended by 10,000 happy revellers.
With exactly a year to go until Beijing hosts the event, the Chinese authorities tried to shrug off concerns about the Games.
The most intensely scrutinised preparations for any Games in Olympic history has brought forth a barrage of criticism against China on issues such as human rights, press freedom, food safety and Tibet, and, not least, pollution.
Climate control
The Chinese government is determined to leave nothing to chance in these Olympics. They want to control the weather and the pollution, because the combination of extreme heart and the smog in the city could be harmful to athletes to say the least.
They also want to control, or rather stop, any protests about Tibet, Darfur or anything else. Yesterday, six activists rolled down a Free Tibet banner on the Great Wall and were promptly arrested.
Smog city
However, questions about pollution were answered by some revellers with a shrug and the assurance that "it's much better than it used to be".
However, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge warned during his visit to Beijing that some events could be delayed if efforts to clean up Beijing's notoriously smoggy air were unsuccessful.
Controlling pollution may be difficult. A heavy pall of grey has hung over Beijing most of this week. Three million cars pump out carbon monoxide - this month, the authorities will try to take one third of them off the road as an experiment.
