100 Days To Go

Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images

100 days to go and Beijing put on some celebrations that included a run past the newly opened Olympic Stadium, aka the Bird's Nest. As you'll see from the photo, some of the runners took precautions against ingesting too much of the city's notoriously rank air. Todays' API reading was 155 according to the newly created Environmental Protection Ministry's website. (The Beijing branch quietly dropped giving the exact number a few weeks ago and now gives ranges: today's was 100-135. Hmmmm) That's well into the unhealthy range. We're all still waiting to see what they're going to do over the next 100 days to fix this problem. Basically banning half the cars in the city from the roads on alternate days for a few weeks before hand, I suspect. That and praying for strong winds, which are the most effective way of clearing the air.

(I'm adding this correction put up in the comments section by Bill:

the beijing epa site does show the exact number; it is the first entry in the series. it also shows you the aqi readings at 27 locations around beijing, which is actually much interesting than the average.

interesting that for today 4.30 there seems to be no data for the olympic center.)