If you've enjoying the ongoing coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing you may have noticed a disturbing commonality in the outdoor events: the unbelievable smog.  On a regular television you might simply think the picture is overexposed or too bright.  On an HDTV it's all too obvious that the air pollution in Beijing is so bad that you can only see clearly for a few hundred feet.  And what's scary is that China purposely restricted traffic and shut down factories to improve the air quality.

I admit that some of those early photos in the media of American rowers arriving at the airport with filter masks on seemed like overkill, but one can only imagine how having to breathe-in this air would affect athletic performance.  A reporter for the UK Mirror reported recently: "Tests yesterday showed pollution almost four times the World Health Organisation target level. I can confirm the air here is dangerous, carrying enough poison to cause delirium".

What's sad is that 2 weeks after the athletes and reporters have left the factories will be re-opened and the streets will be filled with cars once again making the pollution worse than what we're seeing on television.  Sure, Beijing has clear days (photo above), but where do you think that pollution goes when it leaves the city?  Some recent studies indicate that's China's smog is melting Canada's polar ice.  Yikes!

The pollution is so bad it's actually distracting.  If you get a chance, check out an outdoor event on television this week and you'll see what I mean.  Then look out the window at the clean air you get to breathe*.  We take clean air for granted, but we shouldn't.

* This does not apply if you live in Los Angeles.

» The Guardian