Just days before the Olympic games begin, a haze still stretches across Beijing. The air pollution in China is a powerful reminder of the consequences of China’s recent rapid economic growth. Despite China’s effort to manage the problem, and a pricey effort to rid its air of pollution ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, the challenge of cleaning up China’s smog has been overwhelming.

China’s smog-forming ozone reaches far beyond the Olympic athletes in Beijing — all the way to California — and it will soon be the world’s largest source of global warming pollution, according to findings from the Environmental Defense Fund in 2007.

As the 2008 Olympic Games approach, atmospheric chemist Kenneth Rahn, an emeritus professor at the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry Studies at the University of Rhode Island, regularly travels to China to work with Chinese scientists studying air pollution. Rahn answers your questions about air pollution in China and Chinese officials’ attempts to combat it on NewsHour. Particpate in the forum here.

More resources:

See a photo diary/slideshow of Beijing’s air, day-to-day. Enter Room with a View, part of Asia Society’s Clearing the Air: China’s Environmental Challenge.

Betty Ann Bowser of NewsHour examines the country’s pollution woes and how athletes are coping. Read the update on NewsHour.

View Photos of Kenneth Rahn’s work Tracking Pollution in Beijing on NewsHour.