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High hopes pinned on parliament session
(Xinhua) Updated: 2008-03-02 17:29 Blue Skies The moderate wind sweeping across Beijing on Sunday is widely expected to clear up the city's misty skies that forecast a duststorm the day before. Beijing has been working hard against environment woes, one of the biggest worries that overshadow the forthcoming Olympics. For at least a decade, the misty skies and suffocating dust made an inevitable topic during the annual parliament session that meets in early March, a most likely season for sandstorms. "I submitted a proposal on sand control several years ago," said Dr. Wang Haibo, a political advisor and agronomist from the northern Hebei Province. "I'm glad to see sandstorms occur less often in Beijing in the recent two years." As part of its latest efforts to cut emission, the city has introduced a number of environment-friendly buses for deputies to shuttle between their hotels and the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing where the meetings will be held. The minimum fuel consumption of these new buses is only five liters per 100 kilometers, Beijing Times reported. The Beijing weather bureau is closely monitoring the potential cold current, gales, duststorm and rain during the "Two Sessions" in an effort to generate more precise forecasts and analysis for the deputies, a spokesman with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau told Xinhua. The Chinese are increasingly alert to adverse weather following the heavy snow and sleet that hit central, eastern and southern parts of the country in mid January and lasted for weeks. China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has identified weather forecast services for the Olympic Games opening on August 8 as "a priority" for this year as the country may face much more frequent adverse weather. The CMA started on Thursday to release a daily meteorological report to the "Two Sessions" and will hand out booklets on extreme weather and global warming to the deputies. |
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