China’s Inconvenient Truth: Anti-Air Pollution Doc Goes Viral

A new online lecture-format documentary describes China’s appalling air quality and its health effects.
It’s gone viral.

NYTimes:

By early Monday morning, “Under the Dome” had been played more than 20 million times on Youku, a popular video-sharing site, and it was also being viewed widely on other sites.

Tens of thousands of viewers posted comments about the video, many of them parents who identified with Ms. Chai’s concern for her daughter. Some praised her for forthrightly condemning the industrial interests, energy conglomerates and bureaucratic hurdles that she says have obstructed stronger action against pollution. Others lamented that she was able to do so only after leaving her job with the state-run China Central Television.

“Support Chai Jing or those like her who stand up like this to speak the truth,” said one of the comments — which exceeded 25,000 by Sunday afternoon — on Youku. “In this messed-up country that’s devoid of law, cold-hearted, numb and arrogant, they’re like an eye-grabbing sign that shocks the soul.”
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Some officials, however, may even welcome it as an opportunity to build support for anti-smog measures. The website of People’s Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper, was one of the first to post “Under the Dome.” And the new minister of environmental protection, Chen Jining, praised the video.

Mr. Chen said at a news conference for Chinese reporters in Beijing on Sunday that the documentary reminded him of Ms. Carson’s “Silent Spring,” which on publication in 1962 inspired a public uproar about excessive use of pesticides, The Beijing Times reported, citing the Xinhua news agency.

Although the doc appears to focus mostly on the most visible aspect of pollution from coal burning and other sources, it is another reminder that the growing Chinese middle class is losing its patience with the development-at-all-costs philosophy of its leaders.
This is why the US/China agreement on cutting greenhouse gases is more than window dressing – there is a growing understanding among Chinese leadership that a move to renewable energy is not just politically correct –  it’s critical to the stability of the country.
My recent video below, fleshes out the story.