Popular Chinese journalist Chai Jing has sought the help of the internet to create awareness about the pollution clouding the Chinese skies. The documentary, Under the Dome, had been watched by millions of people in China before the government banned and took it offline. This documentary centres around the smog crisis in China and its effect on the public health and well-being.
It films factories violating rules and official figures disclosing the biting facts that rules and regulations are merely ignored by everyone. The film points out that the heavy industries, coal burning plants and auto-mobiles are responsible for creating this hazard and it blames the government for supporting these industrialists and for not taking initiatives to tackle this issue of air pollution.
Impact of the documentary on the Public Chai’s documentary was a wakeup call for China’s online community. For days after the documentary’s release, the chief topic of discussion on China’s social media platforms has been China’s increasing air pollution. It has even ignited heated discussions about the country’s rising air pollution among the public.
The documentary has been successful in making the people of China conscious about the serious implications of air pollution in their country which most of them were not aware of. This documentary tells the story in such a simple and interesting way that it has been able to attract the attention of hundreds of millions of people in China in a very short time. People have now come to know about the existence of the environmental protection hotline 12369 and now it has begun receiving a lot more calls from the citizens.
The growing domestic outcry’s against air pollution has pressured the Chinese government to make considerable reductions in its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and to raise its share of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. This would involve creating and using more renewable power plants and a reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. The Chinese government has been taking steps to make power plants use cleaner-burning natural gas instead of coal.