Beijing's "green" fireworks won't blow up the environment, so they say
Unfortunate as it may be, most of the traditions surrounding the Olympics just aren't all that carbon-conscious: a trans-continental relay, a giant gas-burning torch, and a fireworks display designed to show the world that China is now a economic superpower. OK, that last one is mostly limited to this year's games. Still, since Beijing has labeled this year's games the Green Olympics, it seems as though they're trying to pass off a lot of questionable measures as eco-friendly -- even their fireworks display.According to the suddenly eco-conscious ideologues in Beijing, this year's fireworks have been specially designed to "cause little pollution" -- whatever that means. We know that manufacturers have been testing non-toxic fireworks, but few details have been given about how Beijing's display will be green. As far as I can tell, there's only one clear-cut example: in order to keep the new national stadium from burning down, the flares will burn at "only" 518°F. Burning down the new stadium would definitely not be eco-friendly -- especially since it was constructed using 10 times the raw materials of a normal stadium.
Will we be able to see the explosions through the smog?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2008 @ 2:19PM
Baron said...
I wonder (not to really offend too much, but out of a real curiosity) how "green" blogging is when you factor in everything related to a blog. It leads me to wonder how many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of blogs there are out there, how many are left dormant on servers, idling spinning away and how all those blogs compare to the amount of resources put into the Olympics.
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8-08-2008 @ 9:04AM
poly said...
im a fireworks enthusiast, for 15 years, and never in that 15 years that pyrotechnics is considered green, because once you light that fuse...its not green anymore...CGI animation maybe!!
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