Sucking In The Filthy Beijing Air

The pollution levels in Beijing are astronomical. Even from outer space it appears that hundreds of square miles of China are covered in the thickest, grayest smog ever seen outside of Mexico City.

The spin doctors in China have asked all the media to avoid mention of this as much as possible. Not only that, they have also asked for it to be referred to as "Haze", not "Smog." They both mean the same thing really. "Smog" is just a more negative word. Beijing is one of the most humid cities on Earth, and when that humidity combines with massive amounts of pollutants, it creates what are essentially very heavy, very filthy clouds.

All clouds are composed to water droplets of various sizes. These water droplets develop usually around a "seed' of some kind, oftentimes a grain of pollen or some bit of dust. The large amounts of airborne particles in Beijing's air creates a perfect "surface" for the proliferation of very filthy smog.

Television, with it's sole focus being on beautiful presentation, has avoided showing the skies over Beijing as much as possible, because it truly is depressing to look at! They built a studio for Bob Costas and his crew overlooking the Olympic Village, with massive windows affording a gorgeous view. Due to the filth in the air they have had to place a gigantic flat screen monitor behind Bob Costas, between him and the large windows.

Notice the heavy red curtains behind Bob Costas' left shoulder. Early on in the broadcasts there was no curtain, so in that small rectangle of space behind him and the large TV screen you could see a bright grey. It looked like smoke soup.

The cut-away shots of the "Bird's Nest" Stadium they have been showing every time they cut to commercial have crystal clear skies and empty streets, obviously filmed weeks or maybe months before the Olympics. China and their ruling party are obsessive to the point of being anal-retentive when it comes to how their city, country, and Olympic effort are portrayed by the world's media. That is understandable, but to have them be able to essentially gag the US media from discussing the filthy filthy air pollution conditions in Beijing scares me a bit.

The Chinese own around 25% of the United States. That includes real estate, corporations, buildings, etc. If they were to get mad at us and pull away the money they shove into our economy, the money keeping the USA from going into a fully catastrophic depression, it would be an ugly situation.

Kind of makes you wonder who is "top dog" in the world, huh?