summer olympics 2008, 100% chance of thick dark clouds

with the echoed concerns from athletes and other stakeholders in the upcoming summer olympic games in bejing, there poses a great opportunity to change the global perspective on the effects of mass production without suitable sanctions.

up until this point, i have only heard of the world's athletes being concerned about the air quality in china and how it will effect them and their performance. while they are addressing the air pollution of the region, it seems to me that we are merely looking at a symptom of the thick smog and not at the root cause as to why it is there.

namely, it is the world's dependence on inexpensive chinese labor and production costs, paired with the country's lack of environmental-protective legislation, that is the actual cause of their looming, noxious airborne particulate blanket. are we, the greedy middlemen countries not to blame in a large degree? it is by our hunger for cheap plastic widgets made via outsourced contracts to a developing nation from which we are to blame. do we so daftly not recall that the byproduct of industrialization is similar to the problems that we found when we took pride in producing goods? choked airways, acid rain, and rivers filled with so much toxic debris that they spontaneously combust?

we, the demand for these consumer goods, need to take responsibility for the glaring problem at hand. we have all read about it in the news, yet situations always change when you've got a front row seat. this can be no longer a nimby (not in my back yard) situation. we realize that our behaviors collectively create an environmental reaction--positive or negative.

i strongly believe that the '08 summer olympics pose a ripe opportunity for our world leaders who import from china to take a step up and assume responsibility for the destruction that we have second-handedly caused. this is an opportunity to take stand toward unilateral environmental awareness and action--not to simply turn our backs to an epidemic that we have influenced through marketplace demand by thinking that we have the right to up turn our noses. we have the opportunity to organize the world around this issue and create solutions for lasting change. who will lead the way?