The great smoke-out

For Angelenos, the radical measures taken to reduce auto traffic and industrial smog during the 1984 Olympics provided dramatic evidence that pollution could, in fact, be curbed through force of will. To a striking degree, the clean air experienced during the Olympics pushed political leaders throughout California to acknowledge the dangerous trajectory of the state's continued reliance on carbon-emitting automobiles -- and to take steps to reverse it.

Beijing -- the modern city that viewers will, to their amazement, see on TV during the Olympics -- is largely modeled on Los Angeles. It is a city of freeways, auto-dependency and gated suburbs, some of which are named after communities in the San Fernando Valley. And though this transformation from bicycle-commuting city to car-dependent metropolis has occurred in a single generation, Beijing already suffers traffic congestion so severe that cars sometimes idle on the new freeways for hours, emitting tons of carbon-based pollutants and producing classic smog. Surrounding Beijing are industrial parks that combine the high-tech, trichloroethylene-emitting factories of Silicon Valley with the heavy manufacturing, soot-saturated steel foundries of early 20th century Pittsburgh.

For a few precious weeks in July and August, this will all be shut down or severely reduced. Because China hopes to impress the more than 2 billion television viewers gazing, awe-struck, at the New China, other major cities in the country will be encouraged to lower their pollution output as well.

It would be impossible to overstate the significance the Chinese leadership has placed on the Olympics, and it is clear that the Communist Party simply will not allow carbon monoxide, soot or smog to mar what it views as the most historic event of recent decades.

The scientific community should plan immediately to take advantage of this monumental experiment, mobilizing to measure the effect by studying pollution levels before, during and after the great shutdown. Congress and the European Union should allot emergency funding to support NASA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and European Union satellite observations and air sampling from aircraft, documenting the effects not only on China but on places as far away as Hawaii and Los Angeles.