Health Checkup for Beijing: Pollution and the Olympics

  • Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008

  • Keynote Speech by
    The Honorable James L. Connaughton
    Chairman, The White House Council on Environmental Quality

     

     

     

    Commentators
    Randall L. Wilber
    Senior Sport Physiologist, United States Olympic Committee

    Howard M. Krawitz
    Political Advisor to the Chief of Staff, United States Army, and
    former Minister-Counselor for Olympic Affairs, U.S. Embassy in Beijing

    Jennifer L. Turner
    Director, China Environment Forum, Woodrow Wilson Center

    Moderator
    Charles W. Freeman III
    Chairholder, Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS

     

     

     

    Wednesday, February 6, 2008
    2:00 to 4:00 p.m. 
    Room 2226 Rayburn House Office Building

     

    This event is closed to the press, and the remarks are off the record.

     
    With the 2008 Olympics less than seven months away, pollution and its escalating threats to human health have emerged as one of Beijing's largest headaches in its Games preparations. There has been widespread concern about Beijing's variable air quality among the Games' stakeholders, from the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), to the international media and the athletes who will compete in August 2008.

    At the outset of the bidding process in 2000, BOCOG and Beijing Municipal Government launched the "Green Olympics" concept to promote environmental sustainability of the Games. Yet, in the run-up to the Games in August 2008, the pace of improvement of Beijing's air quality is still quite slow and Beijing organizers still face severe environmental concerns in the international spotlight.

    The CSIS event aims to address the environmental aspects of the Beijing Games preparation. Our guest experts will discuss Beijing's ability to fulfill its promise to deliver a "Green Olympics" various environmental challenges that Beijing organizers face, and the potential environmental legacy of the 2008 Olympics.
     

    Programs
    Freeman Chair in China Studies
    Topics
    Global Health
    Regions
    East Asia and the Pacific, China

Experts

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Event Partners

Congressional China Caucus

Location

Rayburn House Office Building
Room 2226

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Global Health