Blog 1: September 2 Lauren Epperson Air Pollution in China

China has been preparing to upgrade its air quality monitoring system but this comes at a time when Wikileaks obtained cables from the US consulate in China from 2006 saying they [China] have failed to measure dangerous pollution levels. All over China there are factories that produce American goods. These factories emit large amounts of air pollutions from their smoke stacks. The cable from August 16^th, 2006 even stated that researchers had discovered that the small-particulate matter was five to ten times higher than the standards that the World Health Organization sets. This information was not broadcasted because the scientists were afraid the information was too sensitive for authorities and have stopped any attempts to conduct anymore studies related to air pollution. The scientist did not want to lose research funding.

Since the cables in 2006 China has improved their efforts in combating air pollution. There are also improvements being made measuring air quality. Before the scale did not measure ozone or the amount of small particles. Small particles are so small that public health official has said that these particles can enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems and heart disease.

This is a social problem because people contribute to air pollution and can see the effects of it. Once the harmful chemicals are placed in the atmosphere they are circulated throughout the entire world. The actions of China will have consequences on other countries. Some solutions for air pollution are very practical for citizens to carry out and will only have affects if a collective group is acting. People cannot help solve a social problem when scientists are not providing them with the information to be informed citizens. The scientist have also made this problem worst by holding the information, it created a large gap between the idea of air pollution and the reality. People were thinking that the steps they were already taking to help with air pollution are enough but in reality officials are thinking about updating the air quality system because it is not effectively measuring air pollution. The current scale does not measure the harmful particles that are causing problems in places like China.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/26/wikileaks-china-dangerous-pollution