Smog in your eyes
The weather forecast was very good: sunshine, cold at night, crisp early in the morning and around fifteen degrees during the day. An excellent opportunity for a morning run around the Birds’ nest and to get rid of the extra kilos. But then my Tilburg University colleague, based in Beijing, send me a text message, warning that the air condition for the weekend is hazardous. ‘’Don’t go outside if it is not needed!’’, he advised me. So I ran indoors, on the treadmill next to an American colleague.
The density of fine particulate matter, PM2.5, used as an indicator of air quality was well above 600 micrograms per cubic meter according to China’s environmental protection agency. They began releasing figures on PM2.5 in January 2012, and it was not immediately clear if the devices used for monitoring could give readings higher than 600. It is good to know that according to the World Health Organisation guidelines a safe level is a maximum of 25 micrograms per cubic meter!
At the opening dinner of the conference I attended our Chinese host referred to the importance of social responsibility and sustainability issues in educating our future generation at home and abroad. He referred to the impact of the economic growth of China and of climate change on the environment and the air pollution in Beijing. China Daily newspaper wrote about expats and Chinese workers clearing out of Beijing jobs to seek careers in places with cleaner air. China itself is investing in the recruitment of international students to study at their prestigious institutions and they want to learn good and bad practices from around the world. What is often notice is that we assume that values and norms are shared worldwide, but that is not always the case. Values and norms differ amongst cultures and countries and more so within cultures and countries. So we need to be conscious not to impose our values and norms, whether we talk about international cooperation or air pollution.
Hans-Georg van Liempd is program manager at TiU and president of EAIE. He blogs for Univers.
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