What are the effects of pollution on the daily life and health of a Chinese family? This is what "Smog Journeys" tries to tell, a short film made for Greenpeace by Jia Zhangke, one of the most famous Chinese directors in the world, already a career winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
What are the effects of pollution on the daily life and health of a Chinese family? This is what “Smog Journeys” tries to tell, a short film made for Greenpeace by Jia Zhangke, one of the most famous Chinese directors in the world, already a career winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006.
The short tells, in fact, the life of two Chinese families, one of miners, the other of fashion designers, respectively of Hebei and Beijing provinces. In 2012 in Hebei province, which borders the Beijing metropolitan area, they were consumed 313 million tons of coal, and this was the major cause of smog: of the 10 Chinese cities with the worst rate of PM2.5 pollution, seven belong to Hebei province.
According to statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, cities located near the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the area including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are subject to over one hundred days of haze a year, with the concentration of PM2.5 which exceeds the levels indicated by the guidelines of the World Health Organization by two to four times. In Beijing alone, in 2010, PM2.5 pollution could be attributed to 2.349 deaths.
“I wanted to achieve a film that can open people's eyes, and not that scare them. Smog is a problem that all citizens of the country need to face, understand and solve in the coming years - says Jia Zhangke. A problem that I became aware of in the nineties. I could only perceive that the air was really terrible, that the dust was everywhere, making people's daily life really difficult “.
In late 2013, Chinese leaders came up with a national plan for the improvement of air quality in the country. Steel production will be reduced, as will coal consumption. It is also expected to shut down the dirtiest industries, develop renewable energy and implement more effective policies to protect vulnerable populations during days of heavy pollution. It is precisely in this direction that theimportant agreement signed with the USA on the reduction of emissions.
"Breathing clean air is a basic necessity for a healthy life. It is sad that children grow up surrounded more by smog than by clean air and blue skies, as depicted in Jia's film. Returning clean air must be a priority that requires immediate action. Greenpeace calls on the Chinese government to take immediate action for the safeguarding its citizens by reducing coal consumption in favor of cleaner sources such as renewables, ”says Yan Li, head of the Climate and Energy campaign at Greenpeace East Asia.
Roberta Ragni
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