"I Gauge Air Quality For My Motherland" - Citizen Air Quality Monitoring Starts To Take Off In China

[hatrack]

BEIJING- As the press has been spilling gallons of ink over the country's air quality issues, a cartoon entitled "I gauge air quality for my motherland" is spreading widely via the Internet. The cartoon, clearly inspired by the popular poster "I exploit crude oil for my motherland" in the 1960s, portrays two middle-aged men holding up air quality sensors and a young lady with a map in hand, looking serious, sleeves rolled up, against a backdrop of a hazy skyline and floating red flags.

The phrase "for my motherland" has special significance in China. In the 1960s, the newly-founded country was in dire need of crude oil. Thousands of oil workers, motivated by the slogan "I exploit crude oil for my motherland," were devoted to oil exploration.

This time, the phrase has been attached to measuring air quality and is stoking a grassroots campaign to fight air pollution. It has marked a rising level of environmental awareness. Zhang Xiang, 63, a retired forestry worker, is a member of the Beijing-based Daerwen Nature Quest Agency, first initiator of the air quality testing campaign. Before Daerwen, Zhang had already joined a couple of environmental groups in the capital.

"I used to work in the forest factory along Xiaohinggan Mountains in Northeast China. Excessive logging led to soil erosion, and workers were laid off when there were no trees to cut. I suffered the consequences of environmental destruction," Zhang said, explaining how he became a conservationist.

EDIT

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-12/02/content_14206186.htm