Cleaner Greener China: Clean Technology, Green Products, New Ideas, Clean China

There have been a ton of articles in the past week on the effectiveness of the pollution measures that were put in place prior to the Olympics.

According to Science Daily’s coverage:

During the two months when restrictions were in place, the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — a noxious gas resulting from fossil fuel combustion (primarily in cars, trucks, and power plants) — plunged nearly 50 percent. Likewise, levels of carbon monoxide (CO) fell about 20 percent.

For me, there are a few lessons here:
1) If we want to improve the conditions – we can
2) There are costs to improving the questions – and we will all be willing to pay the costs at some point
3) All it takes is a little leadership, and a little public support, to make the changes

Until then, these findings matter little in reality.  Beijing put lipstick on the pig for a couple of months as a drastic measure, and while there have certainly been improvements made and investments approved, the fact is that things are back to normal and the air quality for Beijing’s residents is the same now as it was 1 year ago.