Beijingers campaign to keep blue sky #Beijing’s #airpollution has been given serious attention not only by the government, #NGOs, and civil societies, but also among the Chinese public. Many Chinese, such as Zou Yi, a 53-year-old entrepreneur, are quietly helping to raise awareness about Chinas air pollution problem. Every morning, Zou takes a picture of the Beijing Television network building and posts it on his Weibo and Wechat accounts along with the pollution level. Whenever he leaves the city, he asks a friend to post the pictures for him. “When the smog got so serious last year, I couldnt go outdoors. I was standing beside the window and was like, what can I do? In front of me was the Beijing TV station building shimmering in the smog. And then I began to take pictures of it, he said. Zous pictures became so popular online that the Ministry of Environmental Protection contacted him about using them. This endeavor also transformed his perception about his career: energy investment. We used to think that the earth was infinite and we could emit waste-water and everything else into the air and rivers. But now we know the earth is finite, and all we have emitted will eventually come back to us, he said. When Beijing hosted the APEC meetings in early November, it shut down a number of factories and limited cars on the roads. Residents enjoyed several days of fine skies, and the phrase APEC Blue was born. China has pledged to change its energy consumption mode to ensure blue skies for local people instead of just visiting world leaders. The capital has also released a Five-Year Clean Air Action Plan and promised close to 1 trillion yuan for the clean-up.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:56:00 +0000