Seventy-three days to go (updated)

In my article about China's environmental-improvement efforts, in the current Atlantic, I talk about the Chinese scientists in charge of monitoring air quality in Beijing as the Olympics draw near. They laid out for me the timeline for getting cars, factories, power plants, etc under control so that the air is acceptable before opening day, August 8. Interestingly, the working definition of "acceptable" is "comparable to the L.A. Olympics in 1984."

I wonder whether it's about time for the shutdown and cleanup plans to start? It's been pretty bad these last few days. (May 27, 9am, Guomao area of Beijing:)

I also wonder, only half-jokingly, whether right now the factories are running extra fast (and extra smokily), to get as much produced as they can before the impending multi-week shutdown. As with everything on the "We are ready!" front, we'll see...

Update: I wasn't imagining it! Via Sage Brennan, a reminder of this (Chinese language) monitoring site for Beijing municipal air pollution. It reports the pollution index today in many downtown areas at 500! That is bad. I'm betting it's the top of the scale, too, since there are no readings above that. As a benchmark, on New Year's Day readings were generally below 50. Yesterday, which was no one's idea of a crisp, clear day, they were only in the mid-100s. Jeesh!