Air Quality

"The Chinese government likes to hold authority over data for fear that different numbers than those from official sources could lead to social unrest," says Angel Hsu, a professor with the Yale School of Forestry And Environmental Studies, who has researched the poor quality of Chinese data. "China claims they don't have the human capacity to maintain and run the monitors," she says. "But they were monitoring air quality for over a decade; they just didn't release it because they were worried that it would lead to social unrest."

Sarah Uhl leads CATF's team focused on minimizing emissions of potent, short-lived climate pollutants including methane and black carbon. She also serves as co-chair of the Methane Partners Campaign, which advocates for nationwide methane pollution standards for the U.S. oil and gas industry. Read more

“Satellite instruments, particularly MODIS, have revolutionized the scientific community’s ability to understand the spatial extent, transport pathways, and the source areas of dust storms,” explained Thomas Gill, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Texas at El Paso. “Largely because of MODIS, we now have a much better understanding of what specific kinds of landforms and landscapes are prone to initiate huge dust storms, which should lead to improved methods to forecast—and in some cases mitigate—such dust events.”

How do activists know how many trucks rumble through neighborhoods surrounding Port Newark, belching diesel fumes that aggravate the breathing problems of residents? They count them, one at a time, as the rigs roll by. ... Volunteers at the three Ironbound locations counted a total of 1,100 trucks during a 45-minute period, said Isella Ramirez, environmental justice coordinator for the Ironbound Community Corporation, neighborhood non-profit group.

Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, confirmed the dangers that fracking poses to air quality, water quality and human health.

Angel Hsu, an expert on China’s environment at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said Chinese officials severely restricted research into the relationship between air pollution and public health until 2013, when public pressure to confront the issue became too great to ignore. "I think the fact that people from foreign institutions are now able to do these kinds of studies is significant," she said. "[Officials] were trying not to be specific about the health implications of unfettered growth for such a long time."

"I think these trends are very positive," said Angel Hsu, an assistant professor at Yale University who studies China's environmental performance. But she warned that any statistics emanating from the Chinese government—the source of the pollution data analyzed by Greenpeace—should be taken with a grain of salt. "When you talk about any Chinese data, you're always a little bit suspicious," said Hsu, who was not involved in the Greenpeace study.

The Chinese government banned the environmental documentary Under the Dome, which went viral upon release garnering 200 million views in the week after it was released on the Internet for free on Feb. 28. The film exposes the devastating impact China’s polluting industries have wreaked on the environment, bringing home the issue for Chinese citizens by focusing on Chinese cities’ appalling air quality. ...