EMBARK
He Gives People the
Power to Fight Pollution
More than a million people in China
died from the effects of ambient air pol-
lution in 2016, according to the World
Health Organization. It’s a shocking
number, and Ma Jun is exerting steady
pressure on the Chinese government
and private companies to reduce it.
A former investigative reporter who
wrote a groundbreaking book called
China’s Water Crisis, Ma founded the
Institute of Public and Environmental
Affairs (IPE) in 2006. The organiza-
tion aims to make environmental data
accessible. “We have to involve the peo-
ple in our environmental governance,”
says Ma. “They must be informed.”
At first there was little data to share.
But in 2013 China vowed to “declare
war” on pollution and began releasing
the hourly levels of PM2.5, the espe-
cially harmful fine-particle pollutants.
IPE and its partners pushed for the
sources of those pollutants to be dis-
closed. When that happened a year
later, IPE incorporated this new data
into an online map and phone app
called the Blue Map, where users can
check the air quality of more than 300
Chinese cities and the water quality of
thousands of rivers.
Now Chinese citizens can see
whether it’s safe to send their chil-
dren outside to play—and if it isn’t,
they can identify which factories are
to blame. Companies are facing public
pressure to clean up, says Ma. Just as
important, he says, the government
has been convinced “that environ-
mental transparency will not disrupt
our society.” jMA JUN
GENIUSBY RACHEL HARTIGAN SHEA PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE