UGEC 2710: Film Reflection 1

Student name: Leung Lok Wai

Student ID: 1155092495

Movie: 柴靜霧霾調查：穹頂之下

The movie is presented by a reporter called Chai Ching(柴靜), who have been

researching about the smog problem in China for 10 years. It describes the
seriousness and danger of smog, and try to find out possible solutions for it.

After watching this film, I stated to worry about the future of China, and even Hong
Kong. I was terrified by the picture of smog in Beijing which Chai Ching showed in her
movie, it is totally blank that we can barely see anything out in the city. Until this
moment, China government has not stood out or done anything to remedy the
seriousness that caused by smog. The smog in various places like Beijing and
Shanghai have been more and more serious and cause a lot of social disharmony in
China as people are all afraid of walk on streets. While the problem has not solved
yet, the affected area from smog will keep increasing, and one day it will be Hong
Kong’s turn. Although Hong Kong’s air quality is not so well even without the smog
problem, this will cause great danger to public health once the smog has spread
down to Hong Kong.

The next thing that the film has told me is about the weakness of China
governmental policies. Although China is still a developing country, it has been using
this reason to cover their immature government structure and law enforcement. In
the movie, Chai Ching shows us her journey of chasing the truth and reason behind
the smog with the Department of Environmental Protection. There are many times
that they cannot do any spot test for the quality of oil or enforce law to those who
have use substandard trucks, just because the department has no exact power to do
it. I remember a scene in the movie, when they try to explain why they need to do
spot test in a gas station, they quote from the law “…the department has the
responsibility to supervise the quality of gas…”, then the owner of the gas station
said that they have the responsibility but no power to do it. It does not make any
sense but that’s the real situation in China now. There is a department for monitoring
those environmental problems but they actually do not have the power, the power
somehow go to the hands of gas companies or officials that have relations with those
companies, which is one of the main reasons why the smog problem has been more
and more serious right now. Those decision makers try to protect the interests of the
companies in the first place which cause the current failure of monitoring gas
qualities.

Although it is normal for a company to protect its own interest, the companies in
China have failed to maintain a balance between company interest and
environmental protection. The coal and gas quality in China have been far away from
the original government standard as merchants in China are just trying to cut down
the cost of coal and gas and gain the most profit from them. That is another main
reason that causes smog as unpurified coal and gas are burnt for energy, which
creates the components of PM2.5. Actually, some big companies in China do provide
gas that fulfilled the required standard but not all users can bare the price of good
quality gas, which causes the greater use of unpurified gas and coal. If the companies
in China do not think one step forward and still caring their own interest only, of
course it will be a big obstacle towards attacking smog problems in China.