Greenpeace grades the Beijing Olympics
Hey China, don't think you're getting anything past Greenpeace. They're watching and judging your Olympic efforts according to their strict environmental standards.
Surprisingly? Greenpeace actually thinks they're doing okay! Not as good as Syndey, but better than Athens. Oh, snap!
Oh, no one is going to use them as a paragon of eco-friendly living - we're talking about China, not Finland. But Beijing made a big effort in anticipation of the Olympic games, including:
- increased the availability of public transportation, with five new subway lines
- converted 32,000 households to from coal to electric heating systems
- created their first wind power station
On the downside, Greenpeace is "disappointed" that China opened more landfills instead of trying to be "zero-waste." Also, the lack of transparency around their environmental data and certification of Olympic venues casts a shadow on their efforts. Finally, there is the question of if/how China will maintain these good practices after the games, and extend them to the rest of the country.
Want to read more? Check out the report China After the Olympics
It's Energy Independence Day! 
Green Your 4th of July Celebration
The Importance of Pollination - It's Not Just Bee Sex
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-21-2008 @ 4:36AM
tmio said...
Terrible article. It just doesn't sound like you care about the envrionment, all you are doing is criticizing China. Oh great and surprise you think China's doing ok this time. Who cares about What you think about China! Who do you think you are and I'm telling you that you don't know anything about this nation you are commenting on. You don't care about how much improvement we've made and how hard we are trying, all you do is just bitching about our country with some unbased information like a lot of western media do. Yeah you like to be sarcastic and you think that it doesn't hurt us because we are stupid people. That's why you think people in my country are ignorant and we don't care about what other countries think about us, well that's because your opinions are baseless, insulting, aggressive, and intolerant. Maybe you think it's cool to just joke about a country that you think is backwards, but it just makes you sound like a stupid asshole.
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 12:14PM
Kristen said...
It's not the author who sounds like an asshole.
The post is about Greenpeace's assessment of the Beijing Olympics, and yeah, considering the amount of pollution visible there, I think a lot of us are surprised to learn Greenpeace thinks China's doing okay environmentally. Many of us were probably previously unaware of the efforts made there, and now we know -- that's not exactly "bitching about your country with some unbased information like a lot of western media do."
Honestly, there are a lot of other, far more deserving places you could spew your frustration and anger.