By Luan Xiang
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- In China, a group of young volunteers have been ferociously battling air pollution as grassroot inspectors. They call themselves the "Airmen" and vow to bring back blue skies.
China, as the host of the United Nations' World Environment Day this year, launched a series of activities calling for united efforts worldwide to address the challenge of improving air quality.
WHO ARE THE AIRMEN AND WHAT DO THEY DO?
Founded in 2014, Airman Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. is a non-profit social enterprise that carries out third-party monitoring and investigation of the industrial release of toxic pollutants and actively assists the governmental inspections and provides advisory for industries' green transformation during China's war on air pollution.
In recent years, the team has conducted independent inspections in over 90 Chinese cities throughout the country, pushing for over 500 companies to rectify and reform their ways of production towards an environmental-friendly upgrade, according to the team's nomination for an SEE Award, a nationwide private-funded prize for ecological achievements.
According to Zhao Liang, co-founder and CEO of Airman Environmental Technology, the team first began their survey with no more than "a sense of smell, a pair of eyes and a cellphone with a real-time pollution detecting app installed."
Gradually, they have mastered advanced technologies to measure contaminants by employing drones and data visualization. The team has been regarded by local conservationists as one of the leading third-party air quality assessor-advisors of the country, or "pollution detectives."
Zhao recalled waking up an open field with his face covered in dark dust from the furnaces of a steel factory that he had been monitoring. In 2014, many polluting industries intended to increase production activity at night when the environmental inspectors were off duty, and the volunteers had to stay up all night to carry out technical surveillance of the emissions.
Back then, heavy smog associated with coal, steel and winter heating industries in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region had been posing a grave threat to both human health and the environment.
In 2013, China launched its "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" in an attempt to crack down on industrial pollution, and thanks to the action taken Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei now have more "blue-sky days."
In 2017, Airmen joined a third-party expert team to look into an airborne sulfur dioxide pollution scandal in Linfen in northwest Shanxi Province, and provided an independent report on the hazardous contamination based on UAV aerial filming and data processing technologies.
The investigation led to top officials in Linfen being summoned by the country's top environmental body and approval of new projects in the city suspended. Linfen mayor apologized for the lethal pollution, saying he was "deeply sorry" and promising to take stricter action to reduce emissions.
In another case, the Airmen inspected and reported a steel plant in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, that had been releasing industrial waste into the air and Yangtze River, to the top environment watchdog.
Under the governmental and public pressure, the Jiujiang Ping Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. has gone through tremendous changes since then. Now it is working on building an "ecological forest factory" and has applied to be a AAAA state-level tourist attraction.
EVERYONE AN AIRMAN: WIDER PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
While battling irresponsible polluters, the Airmen also work to raise public awareness of the consequences of air pollution and encourage more people to take part in surveillance and scrutiny.
Since 2017, the Airmen have been organizing series of awareness campaigns, inviting every resident in China to take snapshots of the sky from where he or she is standing and share the image on social media networks, in an effort to draw greater attention to air quality.
Galleries and exhibitions of these images are held across China, with the Airmen and local volunteers offering lectures and workshops regarding air pollution and what action to take in case of spotting unusual industrial discharge.
The expert team also works with other charities to promote green lifestyles including cycling, veganism and wildlife protection. The volunteers are often invited to give talks or host events on campus, teaching young children to care for the environment as the "Airkids."
For 2019, the defenders of the blue sky have made ambitious plans to assist the central government in the new round of environmental inspections in the Fen-Wei mining region, as well as to establish long-term collaboration mechanisms between civil society and the government in cracking down on illegal industrial release and winning the war on air pollution.
