Last week, I opened up the China Daily to discover on the front page of the business section one of the most terrifying headlines I can imagine in a Chinese newspaper. No need to head for your bomb shelter: It's nothing so dramatic; it simply read, "Demand for autos moves into high gear: Nation's auto industry set to become world's biggest within 10-15 years."
Normally, when faced with irrefutable truths and depressing realities, I will sigh and gaze out my window at the world, pining for simpler days. But this was a fruitless activity that morning, because I couldn't see the mountains in the distance for all the smog in the air. So thick, in fact, was the soot, ash, smoke, haze and dust, that I could barely distinguish the building across from mine, a scant 100 meters away.
Nasty.
I wish I could tell you this was a particularly bad day in Beijing, but there's nothing unusual here about air that is,literally,breathtakingly bad. Women surrender their fashion sense and wear dust masks when they go out in the city streets, men cover their mouths with their jackets, and children draw in the layer of filth that coats every smooth surface within the city limits.
Every two-bit entrepreneur with something to sell wants a piece of the action in China, and the car companies are no exception. China's population is getting richer by the hour, and they are spending on luxury goods more than ever. Really, what better way to show off your wealth than by inching through Beijing traffic in a ?500,000 RMB ($63,000) Chrysler? It's the American dream.
This year, China will pass Japan as the world's second largest car market. As more people have given up their bicycles and bus seats in favor of cars, traffic has grown to epic proportions. No matter where you are trying to go, if you get in your car (or on a bus - alas! - innocent victims!) during the rush hours, you're condemning yourself to a marathon journey through the smoggy streets.
In some ways, it is understandable. Life here is cramped, privacy is at a premium, and the chance to be alone comes along once in a blue moon. As a result, most people will jump at the chance to sit alone in their personal automobile for a few hours a day; after all, it is comfortable, it is peaceful and relatively stress-free - if you do not mind being honked at by every cab driver on the road.
But this luxury is contributing to a horrifying environmental situation here: On top of car exhaust, many people in the city have their own personal coal furnaces, which they use to cook and warm their houses in the winter. Coal is also used for the vast majority of the nation's electricity, which is in greater demand every year. It's enough to make a person wheeze.
For the Chinese, the current priority is continuing the country's dynamic economic growth. The government here points to the American and European economies and argues that they have the right to follow in the same model: industrialize and pollute, then clean up the mess once they have achieved a certain level of development.
Roy, a Beijing University student of sustainable development, disagrees: "We have to find a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability, or things will get even worse than they are."
Incidentally, Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, concurs with Roy. In a recent talk at the Beijing Bookworm, he told the crowd how he would explain the situation to Chinese officials: "You argue that you can grow today and clean up tomorrow, but if you keep up the way you're going now, there won't be a tomorrow."
Tomorrow is coming soon: Less than two years from now, Beijing will be on display for the world as the host of the 2008 Olympics. The city is wildly excited for the coming games: A huge clock in Tiananmen Square counts down the hours until the Olympic flame is lit, and 11 million Beijingers are sporting the Beijing 2008 insignia on just about everything they own.
The city and national government is doing its darndest to control every variable that could throw a monkey wrench into their games. They are excited for the Olympics as China's grand coming-out party as a modern, industrial country, and they want everything to go off without a hitch.
But if anything could possibly derail these Olympics, it is Beijing's air. Living here is like smoking a pack (or two) of cigarettes a day, and it does not make a hospitable environment for people interested in things like running marathons or competing in decathlons.
The Chinese government has issued an awful lot of hot air, emphasizing the importance of the environment and the need for sustainable development, but hot air is the last thing that will solve this problem.
Sam duPont is a junior studying Chinese in Beijing. To read more about his adventures, visit his blog: redskyatnight.blogspot.com.
