As China has risen to be a world power through rapid industrialization in recent years, the quality of the air has been falling. With the rise in China came a rise in pollution, as the environment took a back seat while they focused on the advancement of their nation. This has become apparent in the larger cities of China like Beijing and Tianjin, where there are days that air pollution clouds peoples vision as if there was a thick layer of fog. This form of air pollution is known as smog. This paper addresses the issues with one part of the pollution problem, air pollution. Because of events occurring in the last two decades, air pollution has become a mainstream issue for not only the Chinese, but the rest of the world. The situation in China has gotten so dire that it has been dubbed the “Airpocalypse”, a name inspired by the close to apocalyptic state China’s air pollution problem is in. For this issue, there are three large stakeholders who encompass most of the population, The People, The Government, and Big Business. Each of the stakeholders are both adversely affected by the air pollution, and are contributors to the problem. This essay also aims to assess each of the stakeholder’s involvement with air pollution and determine who and how they can reduce it down to a safe level. This paper will also aim to offer solutions, but this is not the focus as most of the paper will be centered around the previous goal. From my research over this semester, I have concluded that it is the job of The People to save China from inflicting anymore harm unto themselves or the environment. Acting as individuals, the people have practically no influence, but when acting together as an organized group, they hold the most power out of the three groups, and with it, the ability to create change. Additionally, The People make up most of China, and alone have produced more than their fair share of pollution. The situation in China is also largely in part due to the actions and mindset of The People. Because of the collective power the people wield when organized, and because of their role in the creation of the pollution, it is there responsibility to instill change and find a solution to reduce air pollution.   

Right now, there is an environmental Crisis in China. The issues China are having go a lot deeper than what was stated previously. Most people know of, or have heard of the general issues, like smog covering major cities, and risk of health issues due to exposure. For example, China's environmental protection ministry published a report in 2010 which showed that about a third of 113 cities surveyed failed to meet national air standards last year. Not only are the major cities like Beijing being affected, so is most every populated urban area. On top of that, per the World Bank, 16 of the world's 20 cities with the worst air are in China. Pollution is a problem everywhere, but not nearly as bad as China. This statistic showcases how serious of an issue this has become, where this country is by far one of the most polluted country in the world. Furthermore, according to Chinese government sources, about a fifth of urban Chinese breath heavily polluted air, as well as many places smelling like high-sulfur coal and leaded gasoline. The pollution turned many parts of the country in an unsafe, and dreary place. In addition to the degrading quality of the country, only a third of the 340 Chinese cities that are monitored meet China's own pollution standards (Hayes 1). This last statistic per the Financial Times, an international business news, analysis, market data and company information with a global presence is important. This is because the Chinese Government has been notorious for at first ignoring any threshold for unsafe levels of pollution, and when they finally did acknowledge it in 2008, they set the threshold much higher then what was recommended by experts and used as a standard in most other countries (Anderlini 1). And the only reason they acknowledged it then was because there was a live feed of pollution levels being tweeted through the US embassy in Beijing. And because The Government fed the people lies and propaganda for so long, Beijing citizens continued living in denial, believing the smog was just a weird haze. This happened even though, according to China Uncensored, China contributes to a quarter of all Co2 emissions, burning as much coal as the rest of the world combined (China Uncensored 2015).

When the question of who is affected by air pollution, the first group to even be considered is The People. This is the group the media focuses on, there are countless news outlets like “The New York Times” and “Business Insider” with articles covering the issue. Most center around the struggles The People go through, and placing blame and responsibility on The Government and Big Business. One example of this is with an article about a man named Brother Nut who spent 100 days vacuuming the air in Beijing and in the end, could make a solid brick out of the pollutants collected (Rivers 1). This article serves as a creative way to expose some of the ugly truths of the daily lives of The People, Brother nut provided a tangible sample of what people are inhaling daily. Because air pollution can sometimes be hard to see and feel, it’s severity is often underestimated, but because the results of his experiments were presented in a recognizable and simple form. Another event that was very emotional for many was in 2016 when The Linqi County No.1 High School in the Chinese province of Henan held a test outside for its students during a Smog Red Alert (Berlinger 1). A Smog Red Alert is a precaution enacted in recent years by the Chinese Government that Shuts down large portions of society during times of “Hazardous conditions”, meaning the air pollution has reached a point to where it’s is hazardous to even be outside breathing it. During this time places like, for example, schools are supposed to be closed, and its students at home to keep them safe. Once the image of the Linqi County High School students testing at that time surfaced, there was an uproar. This article serves as a great way to show how much air pollution is disrupting the daily lives of the people, showing bright and promising kids in harm’s way while at a place that should be a safe space. And these people’s fears are warranted, as it is estimated that 1.6 million deaths / year can be attributed to air pollution (Rohde 1). This shows how pollution has gotten so out of hand that it has the potential to shut down a city and potentially harm anyone disregards the severity of the event. 

Thought The People seem to be the main victims of this airborne nightmare, they are not faultless in the rise of air pollution. The People make up most of the population in China, and in turn, create a very large portion of the pollutants in the air today. In their day to day routine, everyone creates a carbon footprint, and even though it might be relatively small, collectively that footprint becomes a lot bigger. Also, a lot of the time, people are just ignorant to the facts, because they were not taught enough about being environmentally friendly. One example of this is with the use of burning coal to heat buildings, highlighted by a graph provided by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American fact tank with the data points coming straight from the U.S. embassy in Beijing. It shows how air pollution levels rise during the winter due to more coal being burned for heating. During the summer their readings state that air pollution levels are around the high end of unhealthy for sensitive groups, and the low end of just unhealthy at about 55 micrograms of fine particulates per cubic meter. During the winter, it jumps all the way up to very unhealthy at 150 Micrograms per cubic meter, and at some points reaching hazardous days which is at about 250+ micrograms per cubic meter which is what triggers a Smog Red Alert (Pew Research Center 1). In The People’s attempt to stay warm during the winter, they have sacrificed both the wellbeing of themselves and the environment, driving pollution levels to some of the worst levels ever recorded. Household use of solid fuels is estimated to be the largest single environmental risk factor and ranks sixth among all risk factors examined for ill-health (Zhang 1). Another way in which The People contribute to rising air pollution is with car emission. According the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), vehicle emissions are one of the biggest sources of air pollution. They state that in cities like Beijing, emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from vehicles accounted for over 80% and 40% of total urban pollutant emissions, respectively (EPA 1). The sheer volume of cars driving through these big cities is insane, most people have seen images of or heard of the horrific standstill traffic jams, like the one that happened in 2015 where 50 lanes merged into 20, and drone footage captures miles of parked cars stuck in the traffic for hours (Bowerman 1). This show cases how China effectively creates the largest parking lots in the world full of running cars all putting CO and NOx emissions in the air, and showing why vehicles are deemed as one of the leading causes for air pollution.

The People can have a big influence in The Government to try and create change. This is exemplified in an article written in the Regional Science and Urban Economics journal, called “The role of the central government and public environmentalism”. In this article, there are four hypotheses, and they all states that The People have a huge influence over local government (Zheng 1). It specifically is talking about how in areas of subpar economic conditions, government officials promising to improve those conditions are more popular. This shows how the will of The People influences government, but on a small scale. If this mentality was applied on a larger scale, serious progress could be made in reducing air pollution.

The Government has received a lot of criticism about their failures to prevent or stop the rise of pollution, but they have also had their share of hardships that came along with the it. To start, once air pollution in China became the spotlight for global news, the leaders have been under a lot more scrutiny and received a lot more forced guidance from other world powers. The Government also choose denial and ignorance as their stance on a few controversial subjects like is there a threshold for pollution becoming hazardous. There was also the incident in 2008 where the US tweeted out a live feed of pollution levels in Beijing, forcing China’s hand into changing their stance on a topic they were very intent on keeping quiet (Anderlini 1). Because of all the attention the China was getting for around two decades, it made it harder for them to run their Government how they wanted to, and they we practically forced to be more transparent then they originally wanted to be. The Government could make necessary adjustments to now be much more anti-pollution, and fixing what has been wrong for so long is there responsibility. The biggest burden this “Airpocalypse” has brought upon The Government is the need to change and adapt as well as making strides toward fixing their past mistakes. In comparison to the other stock holders, The Government was mostly positively affected because of the transformation they underwent. 

In China, The Government has not been as vigilant as I should have been when I comes to preventing national emergencies like Smog Red Alerts. It is The Government’s job to make sure its citizens are safe and healthy, which is something they have failed to do. The level of pollution is twice the daily concentration that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers hazardous to human health (Jia 1). For The Government, how they contribute to air pollution is a little different from the other stakeholders. Because of their authority and armed with the knowledge they should have for successfully running a country, any oversight or avoidance of a problem that lead to someone else polluting is their fault. And as stated earlier, The Government has done a lot of both overlooking and avoiding for issues and events that lead to the rise in pollution. From any time before 2008, The Government simply denied that there was a limit for air pollution before it became hazardous. This is something they did with a lot of other issues too, for example, according to the Financial Times, less than a decade ago, The Government refused admit to acrid clouds of choking smog hanging over most of the country had anything to do with industrial development (Andrlini 1).

The Government already has the power to create change that could effectively reduce air pollution. They are already organized, they already have the support of the people, and they already have successfully started to use their power to start fixing their mistakes. China’s authoritarian leaders have become increasingly zealous in their attempts to halt rampant poisoning of the environment, even to the point of declaring a “war on pollution”. Some of their successful changes they have already implemented, for example, according to the Emissions Standards web page, The Government worked with the MEP (Ministry of Environmental Protection), starting in 1990 to create the Vehicle and Engine Emission Standard which aimed at setting a nationwide standard that worked with some environmental standards (ECOpoint 1). Every few years the standards are revised with the last revisions made in 2013. Also, with The Government alongside the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), they could create restrictions on how many cars can be sold and driven, as well as their emission control measures so there are much less inefficient vehicles on the road. At the time that EPA released this document, their changes could reduce CO, HC and NOx emissions by more than 90% (EPA 1).

Big business is not the usually considered when it comes to a question of who is affected by pollution. Usually Big Business are the ones at blame when it comes to this issue, with a lot of anti-air pollution propaganda centering around factories spewing out emissions. Most are pictures with factories spewing smoke that forms a skull, or endless factory smoke pipes being partially hidden by the vast amount of smoke its producing, or factories with covered by a red circle with a line through it. But on the contrary, pollution affects businesses in a very big way, by cutting into their profits. Per a study conducted by National Bureau of Economic Research(NBER), there is a direct relationship between pollution levels and workplace productivity, even for desk job workers. Their main point was that there are some pollution particulates that are small enough to penetrate walls and absorb into an employee’s blood stream and adversely affect their brain functions (Making Sen$e 1). So even if that person was only outside for 30 minutes that day, they would still have been exposed to a Signiant amount of pollution throughout the day. The NBER found that Particulate exposure also caused irritation for the ears, nose, throat and lungs as well as causing mild headaches, all leading to a noticeable drop in productivity. According to a study conducted RAND Corp., an American nonprofit global policy think tank, published by CNBC, a well-known and reputable news site, of China’s $11-trillion-plus economy pollution drops China's GDP about 6.5 percent annually, mainly due to loss of productivity (Gustke 1). Maximizing profits and minimizing loses are essential to any business in a competitive market. Pollution does take up a large chunk of the possible earnings, as emphasized by 6.5% of China’s GDP disappearing to pollution. Maintaining a safe and healthy work place is essential for keeping employees happy. If that safe and healthy work place environment becomes compromised, workers might become unhappy and quit. Also, a poor work environment might drive away future employees, and now you have sacrificed the quality and quantity of the staff. 

While Big Business has certainly been afflicted by the rise in pollution, they are also huge culprits in the issue. Until environmental regulations are put in place, businesses tend to try and cut corners and save money at the expense of the environment. There is a reason why Big Business are the buys guys of the environmental world. A faceless corporation releasing high concentrated amounts of emissions through their factories, and delivery trucks swarming the roads burning more fuel. A large portion of Big Business simply cannot be trusted to make certain ethical choices, which causes The People to trust them less, adding to their bad guy persona. Big Business has made so that The Government is forced to enact environmental regulations to save what their waste would have quickly destroyed. Even with regulations in place, Big Business earns its poor reputation from incidents like this, where per Ma Jun, director of the nongovernmental Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, over the last three years, the Chinese government has punished 33 multinational corporations for violating the nation’s environmental laws and regulations (Liu 1). The lack of cooperation from these Big Businesses creates tension between them and the other stakeholders as well as ignoring the law and continuing to harm the environment. But that is not the only incident directly affecting countries outside of China. Factory emissions in China are so far reaching that per a study conducted by Steve Davis, a University of California at Irvine scientist, and published in published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the emissions are reaching the West Coast of the US bringing with it some heavy environmental costs (Wan 1). It is also stated that as much as a quarter of the sulfate pollution on the West Coast can be tied to Chinese exports. 

Part of being a Big Business is having power and money, which could be used to positively impact the air pollution problem. They have influence in the government, which they could use to create better environmental policies. They also have the power to decide whether they want to be a part of the problem or the solution. Because of the vast amounts of money some corporations have, they can afford to switch the power sources they use from coal to a renewable source. The large startup fee for installing these renewable energy sources should be reasonably affordable for a large corporation. They could also take some of their funds and use them to fund other environmental efforts, like charity. There are plenty of other groups trying to fix the environment, and instead of directly facing the problem, they could donate their money and resources to help those who are

After discussing the three stakeholder’s role in the issue, what part should each of them hold in reducing air pollution. Starting with who I originally thought should do this, The People. To start, this issue is largely in part due to them, their direct contribution. The pollution they produce through heating their homes, driving their cars, and consuming goods makes up a large portion of the overall pollution. Also, their ignorance on the issue has made people content with polluting the environment. They blindly listened to what they were told about pollution, and failed to see the error in their ways. This ignorance has also lead to a lack of effort to solve the issue. On the other hand, The People are merely living by the standards set by The Government. For decades, The People were told there was nothing wrong, and they trusted what The Government had to say enough to not question it much further. Also, the whole infrastructure of society created by the government has practically forced The People to pollute. For example, most houses and buildings are heated using coal which causes huge spikes in air pollution in the winter. Because there has been no drastic change to fix big issues like this, it adds reason to want the burden of cleaning the air to fall onto The Government. But, it is the job of the people to keep the government in line. If there is something in their government that The People don’t like, they possess the ability to change it. But still, Big Business has been also major player in the rise of air pollution. Though, it can be argued that Big Business is monitored by The Government, and there for if Big Business makes any huge mistakes, the blame could be with The Government for letting it happen in the first place. But even with the rules put in place by The Government, there have been multiple incidents where corporations have broken those rules to save money, and in the process, create more pollution. The biggest problem with the burden being placed on Big Business is that there would need to be worthwhile incentives in place to ensure they would follow through correctly with a solution.

After going through everything thus far, China has made some significant strides toward ending the “Airpocalypse”. With the way The Government is running now compared to a decade ago, there is a lot more room for The people to step up and create change. After doing some research about The Government’s efforts to reduce air pollution, my stance on who’s responsible for cleaning up what everybody have had almost destroyed has only changed slightly. Before I thought that the government never made the transition from being very secretive and in denial, which would have made any communication between The People and The Government close to impossible. Now that I understand the current state of The Chinese Government more clearly, I would still say it is the collective job of the people to get organized and fight for change. But now higher possibility for there to be a conversation between The People and The Government as well as joint action to improve air quality. In the case of Big Business, I believe it is a lost cause. I don’t feel as it is feasible that many corporations would reach out and help too much without a proper incentive. I believe that how the business world is by nature, competitive, contradicts what I was hoping to conclude in this paper. The ability for people to hide behind the name of the corporation helps to remove any moral or ethical motives companies would have to help. Even so, it’s no surprise, it makes more scenes that the people who live in the country across the different socio-economic statuses. But ultimately, the power the people gain when working together, the desperate need for positive change and the new interested and involved Government, all empower the people to fulfill their responsibility to fix their past mistakes and put an end to the “Airpocalypse”.
