polluting athletes' lungs

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-08/ff_pollution

Beijing, the chosen grounds for the summer 2008 olympics, is filled with smog and pollution. It isn't uncommon for the air to be so polluted that citizens are warned not to go outside without face masks. The very young and old are warned of going outside into the smog even with masks. This article sums up the problem: Beijing was chosen under the pretense that it would change its ways and become an ecological city. yeah right. A few of the new stadiums and facilities employ green energy systems: rain-catching systems and solar panels, but it's all just for show. As skyscrapers go up on every street corner and thousands of cars are put on the street everyday, carbon emissions are continuing to skyrocket. What a terrible place for the olympics. It may have been a good idea in 2002, when Beijing was decided to be the location. Who knows, maybe it could have sparked an interest in the people and government there to change their ways (not that it would have changed ours) but it didn't. It failed, and now thousands of athletes are going to be running, cycling, and swimming in pollution. I guess we had better get used to the idea of breathing in smog, most "liberal" and "green" people I know aren't willing to make any changes in their lives either. Driving a car is too convenient and remembering to turn the house lights off is too much of an inconvenience.