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Saturday, 9 August 2008
UN chides media ‘frenzy’ over Beijing smog
BEIJING - THE United Nations’ environment boss has rebuked global media for a 'frenzied focus' on Beijing’s pollution and ‘amnesia’ over past hosts’ similar problems.
BEIJING - THE United Nations’ environment boss has rebuked global media for a ‘frenzied focus’ on Beijing’s pollution and ‘amnesia’ over past hosts’ similar problems.
Achim Steiner, who heads the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and was in Beijing to see the Olympics opening, said many of the 30,000 journalists covering the Games were over-fixated on China’s smog and had displayed short-term memories.
‘After all, air pollution was a major concern in Los Angeles 24 years ago,’ he said. ‘Though few now seem to recall the dramatic scene at the end of the women’s marathon when the Swiss competitor was seen staggering and stumbling from exhaustion, the heat and, perhaps, the effects of air pollution.’
Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss’ weaving finish and collapse over the finishing line horrified spectators and became one of the abiding images of Los Angeles 1984. TV shots of Beijing’s cloying smog have already become a fixed image of this Games.
But ‘air quality was also an issue for subsequent Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Seoul and Athens”, Steiner added in a comment piece published by Chinese media on Saturday.
‘Without doubt Beijing is facing a huge challenge. There are real and understandable concerns for the health of competitors, especially those in endurance and long-distance events ... But the current frenzied focus is marked by considerable amnesia.
‘The debate about the Beijing Games deserves more fair play.’ Steiner, who is under-secretary general of the world body as well as executive director of Nairobi-based UNEP, said China deserved recognition for ‘real and, one hopes, long-lasting’ environmental achievements in the run-up to the Games.
He noted that 200 polluting factories had been closed, changed to cleaner production or re-located out of Beijing in the last seven years. More than 90 per cent of Beijing’s waste water was now treated, 50 per cent of the city was forested and 60 per cent of energy generation came from natural gas, he said.
New vehicle emission standards were higher than the United States, Steiner said, while 4,000 new buses were powered by natural gas in the largest such fleet in the world.
‘Then there is the attention to eco-detail at the Olympic venues themselves, including the 400,000-square metre Olympic Village where water reclaimed from the Qinghe sewage treatment plant is being used for heating and cooling systems.’
Steiner said only time would tell if China can get pollution down acceptably. ‘But it is clear that Beijing is striving to be part of the Green Team ... This is all the more remarkable when set against the city’s double-digit economic growth.’
An early test of the conditions came on Saturday when men’s cyclists began a 245-km road race taking in Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall in hills outside the city.
But Steiner said reporters had already pre-judged China.
‘Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust,’ he said. ‘Everyone seems keen to prove that the city’s air will be a decisive and debilitating factor.’ -- REUTERS
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UN chides media ‘frenzy’ over Beijing smog
BEIJING - THE United Nations’ environment boss has rebuked global media for a ‘frenzied focus’ on Beijing’s pollution and ‘amnesia’ over past hosts’ similar problems.
Achim Steiner, who heads the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and was in Beijing to see the Olympics opening, said many of the 30,000 journalists covering the Games were over-fixated on China’s smog and had displayed short-term memories.
‘After all, air pollution was a major concern in Los Angeles 24 years ago,’ he said. ‘Though few now seem to recall the dramatic scene at the end of the women’s marathon when the Swiss competitor was seen staggering and stumbling from exhaustion, the heat and, perhaps, the effects of air pollution.’
Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss’ weaving finish and collapse over the finishing line horrified spectators and became one of the abiding images of Los Angeles 1984. TV shots of Beijing’s cloying smog have already become a fixed image of this Games.
But ‘air quality was also an issue for subsequent Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Seoul and Athens”, Steiner added in a comment piece published by Chinese media on Saturday.
‘Without doubt Beijing is facing a huge challenge. There are real and understandable concerns for the health of competitors, especially those in endurance and long-distance events ... But the current frenzied focus is marked by considerable amnesia.
‘The debate about the Beijing Games deserves more fair play.’ Steiner, who is under-secretary general of the world body as well as executive director of Nairobi-based UNEP, said China deserved recognition for ‘real and, one hopes, long-lasting’ environmental achievements in the run-up to the Games.
He noted that 200 polluting factories had been closed, changed to cleaner production or re-located out of Beijing in the last seven years. More than 90 per cent of Beijing’s waste water was now treated, 50 per cent of the city was forested and 60 per cent of energy generation came from natural gas, he said.
New vehicle emission standards were higher than the United States, Steiner said, while 4,000 new buses were powered by natural gas in the largest such fleet in the world.
‘Then there is the attention to eco-detail at the Olympic venues themselves, including the 400,000-square metre Olympic Village where water reclaimed from the Qinghe sewage treatment plant is being used for heating and cooling systems.’
Steiner said only time would tell if China can get pollution down acceptably. ‘But it is clear that Beijing is striving to be part of the Green Team ... This is all the more remarkable when set against the city’s double-digit economic growth.’
An early test of the conditions came on Saturday when men’s cyclists began a 245-km road race taking in Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall in hills outside the city.
But Steiner said reporters had already pre-judged China.
‘Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust,’ he said. ‘Everyone seems keen to prove that the city’s air will be a decisive and debilitating factor.’ -- REUTERS
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