Watts, Jonathan. "China: The Air Pollution Capital of the World." World Report, November 19, 2005, 1761-762.
Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
The author works as a journalist for The Guardian in UK. Also, he served as president of the Foreign Correspondents' Clubs of China from 2008-2009. Another interesting publication is a book called: When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save the World - or Destroy It.
What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
Main Argument: This article was written 3 years before Beijing Olympic Game, arguing that despite Chinese authorities have given the world a promise about a green Olympic Game, it is still facing serious environment problems. For instance, the air pollution results in 4000 premature deaths a year and a great number of water running in Chinese cities are too polluted to be used in daily life. Finally the author reaches a conclusion that Chinese government is so authoritative that whatever it does to ensure the air quality during Olympic Game, it's only a temporary fix.
Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
Using descriptive statistics: The author has quoted statistics provided by European satellite data demonstrating the severity of air pollution in Beijing and the damaging that it is doing
Using expert's view: The author quotes the speech given by a senior official saying that the air pollution would become worse if nothing to be done by the country
Giving specific example: The author has provided a vivid example of how urbanites in Beijing make judgments of air pollution by counting how many skyscrapers have disappeared in smog.
What three (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?
" Beijing and its neighbouring north-east Chinese provinces have the world’s worst levels of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause fatal damage to the lungs. "
"A recently published study, conducted by the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning, found that a third of China’s urban residents were exposed to harmful levels of pollution. "
"Increasingly likely to be exploited for dams and dumpsites, it is estimated that three-quarters of the rivers running through Chinese cities are so polluted that they cannot be used for drinking or fishing. The Yellow River—seen as the cradle of Chinese civilisation—is testimony to unsustainable development. "
What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report ?
Nothing original was used to produce the claims in the article. The author used data provided by European Satellite to prove that pollutants in the sky over China have increased by about 50% during the past 10 years. Also, the author used conclusion published by Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning claiming that a third of China's urban residents were exposed to harmful levels of pollutions. In addition, the author also used data from US EPA claiming that 25% of the particulate matter in the skies above LA can be traced to China.
How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
The article does not address any health disparities issues.
Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed? (In some journals, you can see this in a sidebar.)
US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Medical Geography, Third Edition
Low-Carbon Land Transport: Policy Handbook
Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
The article does not present any bibliography to readers.
What three points, details or references from the text did you follow up on to advance your understanding of how air pollution science has been produced and used in governance and education in different settings?
Olympic Games and Air Pollution: The levels of air pollution in Beijing came under much scrutiny due both to concerns about athletes' health and concerns that Beijing had failed to live up to promises it made during its Olympic bid. Foreign journalists at the games reportedly faced various restrictions to their work, limitations to internet access, and threats of physical violence. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2008/08/protest_zone_iii_purple_bamboo.html
Can air pollution in China affect US?: Scientists in NASA claim that air pollution in China is altering weather in US. A series of experiments have been designed to detect the relationship between clouds over the Pacific Ocean have grown deeper and the economic boom in Asia. And the findings show that pollution from China affects cloud development in the North Pacific and strengthens extra tropical cyclones. http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2218/
How this article supports/opposes what you knew about 2008 Beijing Olympics Games?
As the author suggests, the air quality during Olympic Games just like the APEC Blue, is most likely temporary efforts without any doubts. Despite the strict restrictions the government poses on traffic regulations in Beijing, I don't think this can be called "authoritative ".
How this article could be useful in assessing air quality management?
This article can be used as an evaluation of Chinese's air pollution control policy and assists in making more feasible and enforcing control policies.
Article 2
Full citation and abstract?
Rich, David. "Differences in Birth Weight Associated with the 2008 Beijing Olympics Air Pollution Reduction: Results from a Natural Experiment." Environmental Health Perspectives 123, no. 9 (2015): 880-887.
Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
David Q Rich, Cathleen Kane, Vanessa Assibey-Mensah: Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester
Kaibo Liu, Ying Pan: Department of Maternal and Child Health, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital;
Jinliang Zhang, Xiaoli Duan: Department of Environmental Pollution and Health, Beijing
Sally Thurston: Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester;
Timothy Stevens, Barry Weinberger: Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester.
Pamela Ohman-Stricland: Department of Biostatistics, Rutgers University;
Tracy Woodruff: Reproductive Health and the Environment Program, University of California San Francisco;
Junfeng Zhang: Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University.
What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
As previous researches show that decreased birth weight is associated with increased air pollutant concentrations during pregnancy. But it's still unclear that whether or not increased exposure to air pollution during pregnancy affects birth weight. This report used the natural experiment of air pollution declines during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and evaluated whether having specific months of pregnancy during the 2008 Olympics period was associated with larger birth weights, compared with pregnancies during the same dates in 2007 or 2009. The authors found out that if the 8the month of pregnancy occurred during the 2008 Olympics, the mean of birth weight among infants born at term was 23 g larger .
Describe at least three ways that the argument is supported.
Experiments: The authors took advantage of the natural experiment that occurred during 2008 Beijing Olympic which the air pollution has been reduced to examine baby weights compared to year
- Full citation and abstract?
Watts, Jonathan. "China: The Air Pollution Capital of the World." World Report, November 19, 2005, 1761-762.- Where do the authors work, and what are their areas of expertise? Note any other publications by the authors with relevance to the 6Cities project.
The author works as a journalist for The Guardian in UK. Also, he served as president of the Foreign Correspondents' Clubs of China from 2008-2009. Another interesting publication is a book called: When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save the World - or Destroy It.- What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
Main Argument: This article was written 3 years before Beijing Olympic Game, arguing that despite Chinese authorities have given the world a promise about a green Olympic Game, it is still facing serious environment problems. For instance, the air pollution results in 4000 premature deaths a year and a great number of water running in Chinese cities are too polluted to be used in daily life. Finally the author reaches a conclusion that Chinese government is so authoritative that whatever it does to ensure the air quality during Olympic Game, it's only a temporary fix.- What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report ?
Nothing original was used to produce the claims in the article. The author used data provided by European Satellite to prove that pollutants in the sky over China have increased by about 50% during the past 10 years. Also, the author used conclusion published by Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning claiming that a third of China's urban residents were exposed to harmful levels of pollutions. In addition, the author also used data from US EPA claiming that 25% of the particulate matter in the skies above LA can be traced to China.- How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
The article does not address any health disparities issues.- Can you learn anything from the article or report’s bibliography that tells us something about how the article or report was produced?
The article does not present any bibliography to readers.Article 2
- What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article or report?
As previous researches show that decreased birth weight is associated with increased air pollutant concentrations during pregnancy. But it's still unclear that whether or not increased exposure to air pollution during pregnancy affects birth weight. This report used the natural experiment of air pollution declines during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and evaluated whether having specific months of pregnancy during the 2008 Olympics period was associated with larger birth weights, compared with pregnancies during the same dates in 2007 or 2009. The authors found out that if the 8the month of pregnancy occurred during the 2008 Olympics, the mean of birth weight among infants born at term was 23 g larger .