Pollution documentary could be a game changer
Print Edition
Could “Under the Dome,” Chinese journalist Chai Jing’s documentary about pollution, become China’s “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book that spurred the development of the US environmental movement?
Since it was released online on Saturday, the film has been viewed more than 150 million times and has sparked a national debate on environmental problems.
China’s environment minister, Chen Jining, drew parallels between the film and “Silent Spring,” the ground-breaking book by American journalist Rachel Carson.
Li Yan, Beijing-based climate and energy campaign manager for environmental group Greenpeace, called the film “a remarkable milestone.”
Environmental awareness has been increasing in China, especially since air pollution levels in Beijing hit record highs in January 2013, a phenomenon dubbed the “airpocalypse.”
The documentary, explaining air pollution in personal, straight-forward terms, has touched a national nerve.
“The difference is in the delivery,” said Peggy Liu, chairwoman of Shanghai-based environmental advocacy group JUCCCE, noting Chai’s storytelling abilities.
“It’s not that people aren’t expressing these messages already.”
The film begins with Chai’s experience as a pregnant woman and then a mother of a child born with a benign tumor, which had to be removed. It looks at China’s pollution, how it affects health, and what can be done about it.
Li said the documentary and the public debate it has generated could help the environment ministry garner the resources it needs to implement a new, tougher environmental protection law that raises penalties for polluters.
But obstacles to clearing the air are daunting, with the country heavily reliant on coal, and car ownership growing fast.
The film might prove a boon to other industries. Sales of air purifiers at the Blue Air store on 3c.tmall.com, an online home electronics shop owned by Internet giant Alibaba, more than doubled on the day after the documentary was released.
Wang Zhen, a public relations executive in Shanghai, said that the documentary had finally convinced her to buy an air purifier.
“I really need to protect my family, that’s the main bottom line,” she said.
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