Air, Err, Heir

by Lo-Ching Chow

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the apparently improving air quality of Beijing. Fast forward a few weeks, and the Chinese capital finds itself enshrouded in venomous smog. The calamity was not restricted to Beijing, either; most Chinese cities, including my current residence in the Middle Kingdom, Shanghai, were afflicted with a similarly thick blanket of PM2.5 and other particulate matter.

Progress and regress, inextricably intertwined. The folly of humanity, forever enshrined.

So long as the country continues to spout platitudes about environmental awareness and responsibility, while enacting few reforms that are actually rigorously enforced, there can be little progress on the issue on improving air quality in China. So long as we continue to think of nature as something that we can manipulate and control, we will always entertain the illusion that environmental catastrophes can be averted. So long as we flush our wastes out into the oceans, we can pretend that our homes are squeaky clean.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, concentrations of garbage, whose size rivals that of small countries, drift endlessly. The main component of these unsavoury masses of filth — discarded cigarette butts.*

Out of sight, out of mind — what butt-heads we can be. So eager to fast forward, so eager for power, so eager to forget that rewind is not an option.

“To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Are we really going to test the limits of the error of our ways? Our inherent divinity is limited; our capacity for stupidity is boundless.

Centuries down line, what will our progeny inherit from us? Will they be heirs to Terra Eternal, or a polluted globe?

For now, we watch, we complain, and we wait. For imported canisters of fresh Canadian air to arrive. How does that feel, fellow Chinese — having to resort to breathing Canadian air in China — doesn’t that just rattle your patriotic fervour?

Our sense of patriotism may embolden us to stand for our homeland and our fellow brothers and sisters. I just ask that we don’t conflate that with blind obeisance to the current sociopolitical order.

And no, picking on our smaller neighbours does not qualify as patriotism — that’s imperialism. After all, we’ve got bigger fish to fry, don’t we?

Sounding off,

Lo-Ching

* Information based on an excerpt from the documentary, Filet Oh! Fish, which addresses the issues of pollution and disease in the fish farming industry worldwide.