China will go to extraordinary efforts to reduce the smog, which on some days in August can be stunningly bad and on other days it simply disappears (based on my time there), but I think you'll see a lot of athletes go through with the threat of wearing masks, which will be hugely embarrassing to Beijing.

It will become the unintentional symbol of the games and our times: globalization's stunning advance triggers great development and great despoilment. The reaction is inevitable and good. Much like the rise of early environmentalism in America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century (TR as great public purveyor), we'll see a truly global phenomenon this time around, instead of just the West-heavy version that we've lived with these past three-to-four decades.

This will be a fascinating process to track, and the Beijing Olympics will be a major turning point.