A documentary released for free on the Internet since February 28 has succeeded in putting the issue of air pollution at the center of the debate in China.
In a few days, it has become one of the most discussed topics in China: “Under the dome, Chinese fog survey” has been over 30 million times on Youku (Chinese YouTube) and even 155 million times on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site. This documentary features the investigation of Chai Jing, a former star presenter of Chinese television CCTV, into air pollution in China, and its consequences on health.
The documentary begins with a personal account: Chai Jing gave birth in March 2013. Her child must be operated on just after birth in order to remove a benign tumor. It is from this trauma that the journalist will begin to worry about air pollution. She begins by putting a rag over her daughter’s mouth when she comes home from the maternity ward, then comes to forbid her to play in the garden during certain pollution peaks, “like a prisoner”, she tells a captivated audience. . It is this very personal approach that is surely one of the keys to the success of the documentary (visible below, with English subtitles).
More than 20 times the ceiling set by the WHO
An analysis by the Health Effects Institute estimates that Chinese “smog” was responsible for 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, according to Wall Street Journal. It is not uncommon for the density of fine particles in the air to reach the threshold of 568 micrograms per cubic meter – more than twenty times the ceiling set by the WHO. In Beijing, the air is so polluted that vehicles have to turn on their headlights during the day.
Beyond the question of health, the journalist addresses other themes, such as that of the economy: when she asks an official why not close the most polluting steel factories in the region around Beijing, he replies “Are you kidding!” “, brings us back The world, arguing for the jobs that these stoves represent.
The documentary, which sparked a veritable tidal wave of comments on Chinese social networks, also caused a reaction from the government. The new Minister of the Environment, Chen Jining, explained that he had contacted the journalist to thank her for her work, comparing it to that of Rachel Carson, the author of “Silent Spring”, at the origin of the environmental movement in West.
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