From "pollution" to "blue", the change of a data map
A map connects the changes in China's pollution control.
For more than 10 years, Ma Jun, director of the Public Environmental Research Center, has used a map as an observer of pollution control in China to build a bridge of communication for all environmental protection parties.
In 2006, Ma Jun founded the Public Environment Research Center, hoping to develop some projects that are conducive to information disclosure and public participation.
That's when pollution maps took shape: information on punished polluting businesses scattered across the country was brought together into a map that could be viewed at any time.
However, at that time, the degree of environmental information disclosure was still relatively limited. Some were out of social influence, and some were mainly large-scale enterprises that were monitored at that time. These enterprises were usually the backbone of the local economy. Once the negative environmental information was exposed to the sun , some "special care" will be difficult to carry out.
The firm attitude to pollution control shows in the data.
Ma Jun introduced that in the first year, the pollution map could only collect less than 2,000 records, and it has been growing slowly since then.
The battle for pollution prevention and control has begun, and monitoring and release have entered the fast lane.
Especially after the launch of the Central Environmental Protection Inspector in 2015, there has been an explosive growth.
As of April 2021, the violation records collected by the Public Environmental Research Center exceeded 2 million.
In Ma Jun's view, the large-scale disclosure of environmental monitoring data reflects China's political determination to declare war on pollution.
Air pollution control requires extensive social participation.
When serving as a "specially invited observer" of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ma Jun encountered a river flowing with black water while traveling in Hebei, so he went down to the river, took pictures and uploaded them through the Blue Map App, and shared them on Weibo.
In the evening, I received a reply from the official WeChat account of the county environment branch: the county party committee and the county government are highly concerned. They have already dealt with the company involved seriously, held two cadres accountable, and dealt with the polluted river water.
The map app has specially opened up channels for the public to speak out, which greatly stimulates the public's enthusiasm for environmental protection.
Ma Jun remembers that the "Ten Water Regulations" released in 2015 mentioned the remediation of black and odorous water bodies that everyone is particularly concerned about.
Based on the map app, the public can not only easily obtain information, but also easily forward Weibo with one click. They can take pictures, question, and can also "micro-report" @ local official Weibo.
Such data-based social supervision promotes positive interactions between the public, enterprises and local environmental departments.
For example, online monitoring data from a large listed steel company in Shandong in 2014 showed that pollutants often exceeded the standard continuously, sometimes by more than 10 times.
Calls made by the Public Environmental Research Center to the company failed to receive a response, but local residents and environmental protection organizations continued to report through Weibo, and eventually the local environmental department asked the company to shut down outdated production capacity.
Only 3 shaft furnaces were shut down to reduce emissions of 2,615 tons of sulfur dioxide, 196 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 405 tons of dust.
This makes the relationship between polluters and regulators more logical.
Ma Jun learned that the administrative level of some enterprises is even higher than the local environmental protection department, and supervision is constrained by this. However, through repeated reports from the public, the environmental protection department can knock on the door of the enterprise, urge it to rectify and explain it publicly.
More and more companies have gradually realized that information disclosure is helpful to them from the initial ignorance.
Some company leaders have said that using these data to manage suppliers does not increase costs, but helps them identify which upstream companies are at risk, and can better maintain a stable supply chain that operates efficiently during the process of limiting production in autumn and winter. .
Over the years, Ma Jun has witnessed historic progress in the disclosure of environmental information.
On December 30, 2020, the Central Deep Reform Commission reviewed and approved the "Reform Plan for the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information", which identified the legal disclosure of environmental information as "the basic content of the ecological civilization system".
Accordingly, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment promulgated the “Administrative Measures for Legal Disclosure of Enterprise Environmental Information” in February 2022, suggesting that governments at all levels and all sectors of society should pay attention to it, and promote the establishment of a self-discipline, effective management, strict supervision, and strong support for environmental information in accordance with the law. disclosure system.
In today's map app, there are more than 4,000 air quality monitoring sites and nearly 20,000 water quality-related monitoring sites, including sites for soil monitoring key pollution sources.
In 2015, Ma Jun renamed "Pollution Map" to "Blue Map".
That year, in addition to atmospheric pollutants, more environmental information data was made public.
He said that this is not only an upgrade of information, but also to let the color representing the blue sky bring hope to more people and let more and more people participate in environmental protection.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Yi Source: China Youth Daily