Researching smog
I studied in Beijing for my junior year. The first thing people told me when they heard I was going to Beijing was to make sure to wear a mask at all times. While I was in China, people often asked me how the air quality was, and I always became defensive. "The air quality is not nearly as bad as everyone thinks," I said on a clear day. However, I also didn't know about the severe impacts that smog could have on my health until later in the year, when I finally started wearing masks that my friends sent me.
Beijing is rightfully known for its smog -- In 2014, only 175 days were "clear" or good.
In LA, the smog issue seems so far away because smog levels are at an current low, but in Beijing, good masks are essential for one’s comfort during smog-heavy days. The articles that claim that living in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day are false, but it is hard to ignore these claims when smog levels rise above a countable level. There are clearly issues with how the government deals with smog; a Red Alert that cancelled schools for two days was due to factional infighting in the government rather than an actual predicted danger with high smog levels. The air quality levels during the "emergency" were not half as bad as the levels the week before. The week before, everyone outside walked around wearing a mask. Visibility was so low that driving became dangerous. However, there was no Red Alert at that time.
My environmental science teacher made sure to incorporate China's environmental issues into our course. The textbook itself had an entire chapter dedicated to air pollution with London and Los Angeles being the main topics in the chapter. As a result, I'm currently still interested in investigating and comparing the differences in legislation/regulation in LA, London, and China. Since India's smog problem is worsening at a quicker rate than China's, I also want to investigate how India's government is handling this situation.
I am going to teach a class in the 9th grade World Culture's Pacific Rim curriculum about smog legislation in LA, China, India, and London. In order for people to understand the smog situation in developing countries like China and India, they also need to know how smog works and what the national governments are doing to combat smog. There's not much that civilians can do about an overarching smog problem other than be educated about it.
 |
| The view outside the classroom window was somewhat apocalyptic. |
I am going to teach a class in the 9th grade World Culture's Pacific Rim curriculum about smog legislation in LA, China, India, and London. In order for people to understand the smog situation in developing countries like China and India, they also need to know how smog works and what the national governments are doing to combat smog. There's not much that civilians can do about an overarching smog problem other than be educated about it.
 |
| Houhai, Beijing |
 |
| Mudanyuan, Beijing. Not going to lie, the smog sometimes makes beautiful sunsets. |
If you want to learn more about the difficulty of establishing efficient smog regulations in China, I highly recommend the documentary "Under the Dome" by Chai Jing below. Jing does a great job of investigating loopholes and clarity issues in smog legislation. The documentary itself is in Chinese, but there are English subtitles.
0 comments:
Post a Comment