This week's YRC will be a quick update to last week's wildly successful "Compare and/or Contrast" exercise on Dueling Air Quality Monitors in the good old PR of C. As you may remember, we here at the YRC were thrilled to learn that the highly successful air monitoring program at the American Embassy in Beijing was coming to Shanghai.
Yes folks, last year it was the Eagle's, this year Elton John and the good old American air monitoring are coming to Shanghai. Or....maybe not.
However, while Sir Elton will be met with enthusiasm and excitement, he'd better not bring his candy-apple red, neon-lit Air Detector with him, NO SIR.
In the attached New York Times article, we learn that all foreign embassies are being asked to take their rooftop air monitors and put them where the air does not flow, so to speak. Maybe a catchier headline would have have read, "China Asks Other Nations Not to Release Bad Air....Data".
This controversy clearly illustrates the YRC's Three Great Laws of Public Communications around the globe:
In the meantime, here's the Times article:
 |
| Sir Elton John prepares for his Shanghai concert by breathing deeply |
However, while Sir Elton will be met with enthusiasm and excitement, he'd better not bring his candy-apple red, neon-lit Air Detector with him, NO SIR.
In the attached New York Times article, we learn that all foreign embassies are being asked to take their rooftop air monitors and put them where the air does not flow, so to speak. Maybe a catchier headline would have have read, "China Asks Other Nations Not to Release Bad Air....Data".
This controversy clearly illustrates the YRC's Three Great Laws of Public Communications around the globe:
1) Any information which is potentially negative or harmful is only negative or harmful if you actually release it to the public. A problem is never a problem until someone admits that it is indeed a problem.
2) There is no set of facts, no matter how well-established and substantiated, that cannot be denied or challenged with another set of well-established and substantiated facts.
3) People can only remember three things. This is the third. Of the Three Things. That we mentioned. Before. In this column. Which you are currently reading.We expect that next week the YRC will be covering the results of the PR of C air monitoring program in other nations around the world. Or maybe....not.
In the meantime, here's the Times article:
China Asks Other Nations Not to Release Its Air Data
Andy Wong/Associated Press
A Beijing street shrouded by haze in January.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 5, 2012
HONG KONG — After years of choking smog that stings the eyes and burns the lungs, regularly documented by an air sensor at the American Embassy in Beijing that posts the results hourly on Twitter, the Chinese government took a strong position on the issue on Tuesday.
Wu Xiaoqing, the vice minister for environmental protection, demanded that foreign governments stop releasing data on China’s air.
In a criticism clearly aimed at the United States, Mr. Wu said at a news conference that the public release of air-quality data by foreign governments’ consulates “not only doesn’t abide by the spirits of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, but also violates relevant provisions of environmental protection.”
He complained that data from just a few locations were unrepresentative of broader air quality in China. He asserted that it was a mistake for a few consulates in China to be assigning labels like “hazardous” to China’s air based on standards that were drafted in industrialized countries and tightened over many years.
Such standards may not be appropriate for conditions in developing countries like China, Mr. Wu said, adding that “we hope the few consulates in China would respect our country’s relevant laws and regulations, and stop publishing this unrepresentative air-quality information.”
In case anyone missed the point, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said at a briefing later in the day, “Of course, if the foreign embassies want to collect air-quality information for their own staff or diplomats, I think that is their own matter, but we believe that this type of information should not be released to the public.”
The American Embassy began tracking and releasing air-quality data in 2008, followed by its Guangzhou consulate last year and the Shanghai consulate last month.
Officials in China and Hong Kong have grudgingly responded by moving to release their own data on extremely fine particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, a size that penetrates particularly deep into lungs and has been linked to cancer and other respiratory problems. Public awareness in China of the health hazards associated with extremely fine particles has soared with the release of the American data, and particularly smoggy days now set off a surge in mentions of “PM2.5” on Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging service similar to Twitter.
The criticism of the United States by Chinese officials comes after officials in Shanghai have recently taken exception to the public availability of data from the new monitor there. Richard L. Buangan, the American Embassy spokesman, wrote in an e-mail that the monitor “is a resource for the health of the consulate community, but is also available through our Twitter feed for American citizens who may find the data useful.”
He added, “We caution, however, that citywide analysis of air quality cannot be done using readings from a single machine.”
Mr. Buangan declined to comment on how the Vienna conventions might or might not have any legal bearing on the air monitors or the release of the data.
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