Air quality in Beijing has improved for eight straight years. In order for the International Olympic Committee to award Beijing the Summer Olympics in 2008, Beijing had to show air pollution levels consistent with levels of Olympic cities in the past. I just read “China’s Silver Lining” by James Fallows in the Atlantic Monthly, and it was more positive about China’s environment than many other sources I have looked at.

His comments on air quality reminded me of something a source said to me when I was in China in 2005. I was in Tiger Leaping Gorge doing research about the environmental and societal effects of a dam that the government was planning to build on the Jisha Upper Yangtze River. I visited the gorge three times during my semester in Kunming. Sean Xia, a guesthouse owner in the gorge, said to me once, “Pollution everywhere. Have to take airplane to see blue sky. So that’s why this gorge you have to protect.”

Sean’s comment is also related to the tricky balance between the micro aspects and the more macro aspects of development. China’s air quality is a HUGE, macro issue, but Sean’s explicit connections between his own local environment and Chinese air quality is interesting and important. The way that Sean’s livelihood is directly connected to the environment through ecotourism reinforces Sean’s connection to his place, which further strengthens Sean’s connection to the environment.

I am hoping to further explore the way that a connection to place inspires conservation in the film that Jeff and I shoot in August. Also I would like to look more directly the micro and macro aspects of development, and try to make connections between the two.