Business, China, and Climate Change at the Olympics

If you need a break from watching European handball, archery or Michael Phelps, the fastest man in water, at the Olympic Games, check out an interesting and well-written article by economist Irwin Stelzer about the business of the Olympics.

In “Taking Home the Gold” on The Weekly Standard’s website, Stelzer puts the Olympic Games broadcast rights, advertising dollars and sponsorships in perspective.

In closing, though, Stelzer also makes an interesting point about the realities of global warming policies:

The final lesson of the Olympics is an unexpected one--all the fuss about stopping global warming is itself a game. Using totalitarian muscle, the Chinese regime has made the air quality of Beijing a bit less threatening to the health of the participating athletes. But democratic countries cannot order people out of the city and into the country, close down roads and factories, and take other steps to clean the air, even if only temporarily.

When the games end, it will be business as usual in China. That includes constructing 500 coal-fired generating stations to fuel the growth the regime needs if it is to provide the millions of jobs it must create in order to avoid massive social unrest. That will offset most of the steps being taken in the West to reduce CO2 emissions.

Ah yes, economic reality wins out over political games.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council