Japan has told its citizens living in China to keep a low profile, including talking quietly in public, after Beijing blasted Tokyo for releasing treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Japan has told its citizens living in China to keep a low profile, including talking quietly in public, after Beijing blasted Tokyo for releasing treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
I assume it’s to help people visualize volume/distance/size/etc. If an article said “50,000 gallons”, it would be much more precise, but also harder to relate to. When an article says “500 Olympic-sized pools”, it’s significantly easier to picture in my mind.
It’s also worth remembering that this is a newspaper intended for the casual edification of the general public, not a scientific document.