北京奥运会开幕前有些人担心北京空气质量能否达标、组织工作是否有序、交通运输是否畅通等。然而，随着大幕的拉开，先前的担忧似乎都成了杞人忧天。在奥运圣火于鸟巢熄灭前的那一刻，国际奥委会主席罗格先生“这是一届真正的无与伦比的奥运会（These were truly exceptional Games）”的评价，赢得了世人的广泛认同。
其实，很多媒体包括西方主流媒体在奥运尚未闭幕前就已经纷纷给北京奥运写出了“评语”。8月23日美国《纽约时报》发表《中国的崛起不只是金牌》的文章，称“今天，中国体育的崛起让我们感到眩晕。明天，中国还将在艺术、商业、科技和教育方面留下同样超越我们的足迹。”
8月27日，英国前首相布莱尔在美国华尔街日报撰文指出：（北京奥运会）标志着一个新的时代──一个不会倒退的开放的中国。它还意味着，对中国的无知和恐惧将渐渐消失，而现代化的中国正成为日益明显的事实。
从某种意义上看，北京奥运会的成功，犹如改革开放三十而立的“成人礼”，由此，我们国家正式进入“后奥运”时代。站在新的历史节点上的中国，盘点奥运留下的丰富遗产，展望和规划未来，无疑意义深远，它是将奥运增值，更是超越奥运。在众多的奥运遗产中，我们欣喜地看到“环保是本届奥运会的重要遗产。” （罗格，8月24日）在鄙人看来，北京奥运之环境遗产主要有以下四个方面。
遗产之一：优美环境价值无限 近年来，财富增长成为大众梦寐以求的目标和幸福感的主要源泉，宁可牺牲环境也要先发展经济就是以上价值观的具体体现。然而，8月北京优美的环境带给众人心里和生理上的愉悦感给大家上了一堂生动的科学发展观示范课。据北京环境监测站统计，8月全月大气环境中各主要污染物浓度平均下降45％，奥运会期间更是下降50％，出现了14个一级天，为10年来空气质量历史最好水平。湛蓝的天空中飘荡的朵朵祥云，让人们切身体验到财富之外，优美环境也是我们幸福指数的重要内容；
遗产之二：目标虽然艰巨，努力就能成真 7年前我们对于北京奥运的环境承诺确实艰巨，但是在政府、企业和公众的共同努力下，通过采取加强环境治理设施投资之工程减排、实施企业搬迁之结构减排和要求重污染企业停产、限产和建筑工地奥运期间停止施工之管理减排以及机动车限行等措施，绿色奥运的环境承诺得以兑现；
遗产之三：和谐社会催生责任公民 改革开放以来，从消费者权益到环境权益，公民权益意识得以建立，维权也逐渐为公民所熟悉；进入21世纪，建立责任政府和责任企业则成为中国社会走向成熟的新目标。过去面对环境污染，公众大多要求政府履行监管义务、企业遵守环境法律，似乎公民个人行为与环境质量的改善没有什么关系。然而，北京奥运期间所推行的机动车单双号限行措施，使机动车车主在感受某些“不便”的同时，也体会到个人“不便”所带来的空气质量改善和交通顺畅的“方便”，有了与绿色出行亲密接触的机会，认识到人与自然和谐关系的建立每个公民都有一份责任，都能做出贡献。从权益到责任，从理论到体验，绿色奥运成为理想的“实验田”，也为政府今后制定环境保护和城市交通管制的法律法规夯实了民意基础。正如罗格先生所言，“因为奥运会，中国人民普遍提高了环保意识。”
遗产之四：体验公共政策制定，培育公益服务精神 北京奥运的举办，使公众对公共政策的意义和有序参与政治活动有了深刻的体验，正是在媒体、公众和政府的有序良性互动下，北京市及时发布奥运限行措施补充规定，每天设置3个小时缓冲时间，0时至3时机动车上路不受单双号限制。我们可以想象，这个补充规定，将激发公众参与公共政策制定的热情，也使政府看到尊重公众的知情权、表达权、参与权和监督权的积极意义。
北京奥运渐行渐远，但是其留给我们的遗产和由此产生的影响将长期与我们相伴。随着奥运空气质量保障研究课题的结题，奥运空气质量保障临时措施的实施对北京空气质量升降的影响幅度将益发清晰，是否以及何时将一些临时措施上升为法律法规形式的长效机制成为立法者和广大公众案前的重要选项，更成为助推绿色中国诞生的新动力。
让我们共同参与和见证绿色中国的成长。
Checking the Environmental Heritage of the Beijing Olympics,
And Promoting the Development of Green China
By Jia Feng
Some people were concerned about the air quality, organizing of the Beijing Olympics and the transportation, etc. in Beijing before the games. However, these concerns were disappeared with the starting of the games. At the right moment of the Birds Net’s flame going out, “These were truly exceptional Games” of Rogge’s comment on the games are shared by all of the people in the world.
In fact, many media including the main stream ones had given their “evaluation” even before the closing. The article “China’s Rising Does not only Mean the Gold Medals” in The New York Times (August 23) says that “Today, the rising of Chinese sports lets us feel dizzy. Tomorrow, it will leave us similar and overwhelming footprints on art, commerce, science and technology as well as education.”
On August 27, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair points in his article in The Wall Street Journal: Beijing Olympics indicate a new era—a never reversing but open China. It also means that all the ignorance and fearing of China will gradually disappear, a modern China is becoming an obvious fact.
In some way, the success of the games is just like “the thirty age independence adult curtsy”. So China is formally entering into “Chinese Olympics Era”. Standing on the turning point of the history, checking the rich heritage left, it is of very significance by viewing and planning the future, which also add values and surpass to the games. Among many heritages, we are happy to see that “environmental protection is the most important one” ( Rogge August 24). In my opinion, the green heritages include 4 parts as below:
Unlimited Beautiful Environment In recent years, fortune growth has become the aspiration and cause of happiness for the public, which can be reflected in the principle of “economic development first and then environmental protection”. However the August’s good environment in Beijing gave people a vivid demonstration on the scientific concept of development. According to the Beijing Monitoring Station’ statistics, the average concentration of the main pollutants decreased by 45% during the whole August month, even by 50% during the games. The 14 days’ first grade reached the historical high in air quality in Beijing. The clouds in the clean and blue sky let us feel that the good environment is one of the happiness indexes except for the fortune.
Every Effort Can Become True though the Target is Hard 7 years ago, our environmental promise was very difficult indeed, but it has been fulfilled by many pollution reductions measures such as strengthening environmental treatment facilities investment, removing the polluting enterprise and stopping, limiting the heavy pollution enterprises’ production as well as construction spots’ suspending, limiting control on vehicles, etc. under the common efforts of government, businesses and the public.
Responsible Citizens Stemmed from Harmonious Society Since the opening up of China, people’s rights has set up from consuming to environment, besides people are getting familiar with rights safeguarding. In the 21 century, building responsible governments and enterprises has become a new aim for Chinese society going to mature. In the past, the public used to require the governments to carry out their liability on monitoring, and the enterprises to stand to laws when facing pollution, it seems that citizens’ behavior have nothing to do with environmental improvement. But during the games, the limiting control on vehicles let the owners of the cars enjoyed the “convenience” of the good air and transportation smooth though with<
