8 Building a green community
Grassroots air quality monitoring in
urban ChinaJanice Hua Xu
Introduction
Among Chinese urban residents there have been increasing public concerns about
how air pollution affects human health, as many wear masks outdoors on smoggy
days or purchase home air-purifying devices. Mass media and government
websites have been publicly announcing air quality data of Beijing and other major
metropolitan areas on a regular basis. When Beijing was preparing for the 2008
Olympics, the city launched a multi-year “Blue Sky Project,” taking measures
such as relocating factories, strengthening public transportation, and tightening
vehicle emission standards while publicly counting the number of “Blue Sky
Days” (Xu 2012). Yet the air quality data announced by the Beijing Municipal
Environmental Protection Bureau (BMEPB) was met with skepticism from many
residents and international visitors, particularly when the Bureau announced a day
as meeting the criteria of Blue Sky Days but the public witnessed smog conditions.
The concern over air quality has led to individual-initiated regular monitoring
activities, for instance, an online “Beijing Blue-Sky Visual Diary” posted at
ditan360.com. It was created by an office worker, Lu Weiwei, and her friend, with
photographs of the city’s sky for 365 days in a row at different neighborhoods. By
reviewing the photos, they determined Beijing had just 180 blue sky days during
that time period, which differs from the official statistics that Beijing had 285 blue
sky days. The BMEPB responded that its own definition of blue sky meant air
quality reaching or exceeding certain levels based on the monitoring of pollutants,
which include air-related particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, and nitrate dioxide,
even if it is a rainy, snowy, or cloudy day (Chen 2011).
Similar monitoring activities using the Internet as a publishing outlet have
been initiated by urban citizens taking daily photos of nearby landmark locations.
For instance, one resident living across from Beijng TV Station took daily photos
of the tower, shared them among his social media circles, invited concerned
individuals to contribute their own photos to the site, and even expand it to
include data from other large cities. One citizen in Nanjing with an online name
“Grey-Yellow Turnip” not only took daily photos of the city but also posted
comparisons of new white cotton face masks and those used for one day, to show
the contrast in colors.