Organization 1 1. What person, group or organization is being profiled, and why are they of interest to this project? Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment(北京市市政市容管理委员会).They have projects related to air pollution which may be interest to the study of environmental governance in Beijing
2. What have they done – through research, or a public health program or education forum, for example-- that illustrates how they have worked to improve air pollution governance and environmental public health? One progress they’ve made in the clean air project is reducing the reliance on coal and use LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) instead. By the end of August 2015, LPG has covered 76,000 households in rural area of Beijing. This helps improve air quality as LPG doesn’t pollute the air as much as coal does.[1]
3. What timeline of events illustrates how this way of addressing environmental public health has developed? This way of addressing environmental problems is mainly using governmental power to make relevant policies and enforce them. I feel like it’s hard to describe a timeline.
4. Does this person, group or organization claim to have a new or unique way of addressing environmental public health? Does this approach point to or suggest problems with other approaches? No. The approach applied is rather common in other countries. Other approaches may not be completely enforced as a lack of government support.
5. What data have they collected or used to support their approach to environmental public health? What visualizations of this data have been created? They have used quantitative data to support their approach. For instance, in the clean air act, they have used more energy-efficient sanitation trucks. The data shown on their website is that they have 387 energy-efficient sanitation trucks, which has accounted for 40% of total trucks owned by this organization.
6. What research has the organization produce or drawn on in their initiatives – in the last year, and over the last decade? This organization isn’t responsible for researching. Here are a few events that this organization have focused on in the last year, although not all of them are related to air pollution control:
Finished construction of road lamps of over 30 roads;
Carried out clean air act in rural areas in Beijing by replacing coal with LPG. Coal consumption has been estimated to be reduced for 1.2 million tons;
Bettered the profile of the city by reconstruction of roads
7. What kinds of technology and infrastructure do they rely on in the production of environmental health care? They rely on clean energy in order to provide environmental health care. By promoting clean energy application in households, they can contribute to better air quality.
8. What social ecology does this person, group or organization work within, and how did it shaped their way of conceiving and engaging asthma? This organization works mainly with other government departments, institutions and local communities.
9. What events or data seem to have motivated their ways of thinking about and engaging environmental health? Here are some facts which highlighted air pollution crisis and this could have motivated government agencies to think about protecting environmental health:
In 2009 China burned nearly half of the world’s coal and coal accounts for nearly 70% of China’s energy mix;
Beijing experienced 2589 deaths and a loss of $328 million in 2012 because of pm 2.5 pollution;
Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection announced a coal-consumption cap of 15 million tones by 2015[2]
10. What funding enables their work and possibly shapes their way of thinking about environmental health? As this organization is a government agency, its funds mainly come from the government. According to the budget, here are some income obtained by this organization: government financial allocation(财政拨款), grant from higher authorities(上级补助收入), undertaking revenue (事业收入), operational revenue (经营收入）, etc[3].
11. What in the history of this person, group or organization likely shaped the way they conceived or and engage environmental health? Cleaning the air isn’t the main task for this organization. As the government is paying more attention to air quality, the commission of city administration and environment began to undertake tasks related to air pollution.
12. What does this person, group or organization seem to find methodologically challenging or concerning in dealing with environmental health? One thing that may be challenging for this organization is the heavy reliance on dirty energy, especially coal. Even they can replace dirty coal with clean coal and LPG, they still pollute the air. So this approach can temporarily relieve the situation of air pollution, but couldn’t solve this problem for good.
13. What kinds of governance are (implicitly or explicitly) called for in the way they think about environmental health? In my opinion, adequate and appropriate disclosure of their work would be needed. I think they are pretty good at doing that currently. People can view their agenda online and raise their questions. This would be an effective way for more transparent communication.
14. How can The Asthma Files enable or supplement this way of thinking about environmental health, and the work of this person, group or organization? The Asthma Files cannot really supplement the work of this organization. However, more research can be conducted on what needs to be done and which kind of feedbacks can be provided to this organization.
Organization 2
1. What person, group or organization is being profiled, and why are they of interest to this project? Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. Their vehicle restriction program as a way to reduce air pollution can be inspiring for The Asthma Files.
2. What have they done – through research, or a public health program or education forum, for example-- that illustrates how they have worked to improve air pollution governance and environmental public health? ill the end of year 2014, the number of vehicles in possessions in Beijing is 5'591.000, which has increased 2.8% compared to 2013. Although the number of vehicle is still increasing which doesn’t look like a relief of air pollution, the speed of increase is slowing down. The visualization of data can be found in the link attached[4].
3. What timeline of events illustrates how this way of addressing environmental public health has developed? This way of addressing environmental problems is mainly using governmental power to make relevant policies and enforce them. I feel like it’s hard to summarize a timeline.
4. Does this person, group or organization claim to have a new or unique way of addressing environmental public health? Does this approach point to or suggest problems with other approaches? This organization does have a new technique to solve air pollution problem, which is by restricting the number of vehicles on the road. By reducing vehicles, the amount of pollutants released will be reduced as well. In this way, they can help improve air quality. This approach doesn’t suggest problems with other approaches.
5. What data have they collected or used to support their approach to environmental public health? What visualizations of this data have been created? As mentioned in question 2, they have collected data related to the number of vehicles to support their approach. The visualization of this data is available on their website.
6. What research has the organization produce or drawn on in their initiatives – in the last year, and over the last decade? This organization isn’t responsible for researching new methods to fight air pollution.
7. What kinds of technology and infrastructure do they rely on in the production of environmental health care? They don’t rely on advanced technology to provide environmental health care. But they broadcast which kind of vehicle can get on the road online. So I think they need to utilize some basic information technology.
8. What social ecology does this person, group or organization work within, and how did it shaped their way of conceiving and engaging asthma? This organization works mainly with other government departments, institutions and local communities.
9. What events or data seem to have motivated their ways of thinking about and engaging environmental health? Some facts about air pollution crisis may have motivated their ways of engaging environmental health. Here are some air pollution facts from Under the Dome:
500,000 people die of air pollution every year in China
Beijing’s daily PM2.5 level is five times that of China’s average
Beijing’s PM2.5 reaches its peak at midnight
Every hour, one ton of pollution is emitted within Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road[5]
10. What funding enables their work and possibly shapes their way of thinking about environmental health? As this organization is also a government agency, the same type of funding as the last one would be expected.
11. What in the history of this person, group or organization likely shaped the way they conceived or and engage environmental health? Cleaning the air isn’t the main task for this organization. As the government is paying more attention to air quality, the commission of city administration and environment began to undertake tasks related to air pollution.
12. What does this person, group or organization seem to find methodologically challenging or concerning in dealing with environmental health? As regards for their approach, one challenge that they may encounter is that some drivers violate the restriction rule without being punished or the punishment is too little. If so, the policy may not be efficient enough to address air pollution problem in Beijing.
13. What kinds of governance are (implicitly or explicitly) called for in the way they think about environmental health? One governance as usual would be calling for more supervision of their work. In addition, they should realize banning some vehicles on the road doesn’t reduce the total number of vehicles in this city. They should focus more on encouraging people to use public transportation.
14. How can The Asthma Files enable or supplement this way of thinking about environmental health, and the work of this person, group or organization? The Asthma Files cannot really supplement the work of this organization. But researching whether there is a correlation between number of vehicles and asthma cases would be interesting.
1. What person, group or organization is being profiled, and why are they of interest to this project?
Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment(北京市市政市容管理委员会).They have projects related to air pollution which may be interest to the study of environmental governance in Beijing
2. What have they done – through research, or a public health program or education forum, for example-- that illustrates how they have worked to improve air pollution governance and environmental public health?
One progress they’ve made in the clean air project is reducing the reliance on coal and use LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) instead. By the end of August 2015, LPG has covered 76,000 households in rural area of Beijing. This helps improve air quality as LPG doesn’t pollute the air as much as coal does.[1]
3. What timeline of events illustrates how this way of addressing environmental public health has developed?
This way of addressing environmental problems is mainly using governmental power to make relevant policies and enforce them. I feel like it’s hard to describe a timeline.
4. Does this person, group or organization claim to have a new or unique way of addressing environmental public health? Does this approach point to or suggest problems with other approaches?
No. The approach applied is rather common in other countries. Other approaches may not be completely enforced as a lack of government support.
5. What data have they collected or used to support their approach to environmental public health? What visualizations of this data have been created?
They have used quantitative data to support their approach. For instance, in the clean air act, they have used more energy-efficient sanitation trucks. The data shown on their website is that they have 387 energy-efficient sanitation trucks, which has accounted for 40% of total trucks owned by this organization.
6. What research has the organization produce or drawn on in their initiatives – in the last year, and over the last decade?
This organization isn’t responsible for researching. Here are a few events that this organization have focused on in the last year, although not all of them are related to air pollution control:
7. What kinds of technology and infrastructure do they rely on in the production of environmental health care?
They rely on clean energy in order to provide environmental health care. By promoting clean energy application in households, they can contribute to better air quality.
8. What social ecology does this person, group or organization work within, and how did it shaped their way of conceiving and engaging asthma?
This organization works mainly with other government departments, institutions and local communities.
9. What events or data seem to have motivated their ways of thinking about and engaging environmental health?
Here are some facts which highlighted air pollution crisis and this could have motivated government agencies to think about protecting environmental health:
10. What funding enables their work and possibly shapes their way of thinking about environmental health?
As this organization is a government agency, its funds mainly come from the government. According to the budget, here are some income obtained by this organization: government financial allocation(财政拨款), grant from higher authorities(上级补助收入), undertaking revenue (事业收入), operational revenue (经营收入）, etc[3].
11. What in the history of this person, group or organization likely shaped the way they conceived or and engage environmental health?
Cleaning the air isn’t the main task for this organization. As the government is paying more attention to air quality, the commission of city administration and environment began to undertake tasks related to air pollution.
12. What does this person, group or organization seem to find methodologically challenging or concerning in dealing with environmental health?
One thing that may be challenging for this organization is the heavy reliance on dirty energy, especially coal. Even they can replace dirty coal with clean coal and LPG, they still pollute the air. So this approach can temporarily relieve the situation of air pollution, but couldn’t solve this problem for good.
13. What kinds of governance are (implicitly or explicitly) called for in the way they think about environmental health?
In my opinion, adequate and appropriate disclosure of their work would be needed. I think they are pretty good at doing that currently. People can view their agenda online and raise their questions. This would be an effective way for more transparent communication.
14. How can The Asthma Files enable or supplement this way of thinking about environmental health, and the work of this person, group or organization?
The Asthma Files cannot really supplement the work of this organization. However, more research can be conducted on what needs to be done and which kind of feedbacks can be provided to this organization.
Organization 2
1. What person, group or organization is being profiled, and why are they of interest to this project?
Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. Their vehicle restriction program as a way to reduce air pollution can be inspiring for The Asthma Files.
2. What have they done – through research, or a public health program or education forum, for example-- that illustrates how they have worked to improve air pollution governance and environmental public health?
ill the end of year 2014, the number of vehicles in possessions in Beijing is 5'591.000, which has increased 2.8% compared to 2013. Although the number of vehicle is still increasing which doesn’t look like a relief of air pollution, the speed of increase is slowing down. The visualization of data can be found in the link attached[4].
3. What timeline of events illustrates how this way of addressing environmental public health has developed?
This way of addressing environmental problems is mainly using governmental power to make relevant policies and enforce them. I feel like it’s hard to summarize a timeline.
4. Does this person, group or organization claim to have a new or unique way of addressing environmental public health? Does this approach point to or suggest problems with other approaches?
This organization does have a new technique to solve air pollution problem, which is by restricting the number of vehicles on the road. By reducing vehicles, the amount of pollutants released will be reduced as well. In this way, they can help improve air quality. This approach doesn’t suggest problems with other approaches.
5. What data have they collected or used to support their approach to environmental public health? What visualizations of this data have been created?
As mentioned in question 2, they have collected data related to the number of vehicles to support their approach. The visualization of this data is available on their website.
6. What research has the organization produce or drawn on in their initiatives – in the last year, and over the last decade?
This organization isn’t responsible for researching new methods to fight air pollution.
7. What kinds of technology and infrastructure do they rely on in the production of environmental health care?
They don’t rely on advanced technology to provide environmental health care. But they broadcast which kind of vehicle can get on the road online. So I think they need to utilize some basic information technology.
8. What social ecology does this person, group or organization work within, and how did it shaped their way of conceiving and engaging asthma?
This organization works mainly with other government departments, institutions and local communities.
9. What events or data seem to have motivated their ways of thinking about and engaging environmental health?
Some facts about air pollution crisis may have motivated their ways of engaging environmental health. Here are some air pollution facts from Under the Dome:
10. What funding enables their work and possibly shapes their way of thinking about environmental health?
As this organization is also a government agency, the same type of funding as the last one would be expected.
11. What in the history of this person, group or organization likely shaped the way they conceived or and engage environmental health?
Cleaning the air isn’t the main task for this organization. As the government is paying more attention to air quality, the commission of city administration and environment began to undertake tasks related to air pollution.
12. What does this person, group or organization seem to find methodologically challenging or concerning in dealing with environmental health?
As regards for their approach, one challenge that they may encounter is that some drivers violate the restriction rule without being punished or the punishment is too little. If so, the policy may not be efficient enough to address air pollution problem in Beijing.
13. What kinds of governance are (implicitly or explicitly) called for in the way they think about environmental health?
One governance as usual would be calling for more supervision of their work. In addition, they should realize banning some vehicles on the road doesn’t reduce the total number of vehicles in this city. They should focus more on encouraging people to use public transportation.
14. How can The Asthma Files enable or supplement this way of thinking about environmental health, and the work of this person, group or organization?
The Asthma Files cannot really supplement the work of this organization. But researching whether there is a correlation between number of vehicles and asthma cases would be interesting.
[1] http://www.bjmac.gov.cn/pub/guanwei/F/A7/A7_2/
[2] http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/news/blog/8-must-know-facts-about-chinas-air-pollution-/blog/43862/
[3] http://www.bjmac.gov.cn/pub/guanwei/F/F4/201508/P020150820362142812815.pdf
[4] http://www.bjjtgl.gov.cn/jgj/ywsj/index.html
[5] http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Blog-Shanghai_news/25646/10-China-pollution-facts-from-Under-the-Dome-.html