What motivates you to help the air?
When you think about air pollution, what gets your attention most? Is it the effects on your own health, the impact on the environment or what air pollution, and how you might be contributing to it, are costing you in dollars and cents?
Yup – air pollution is proving to be costly to our environment, our health and our pocketbooks.
Check out this air pollution website created by The School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. This innovative calculator shows the various ‘costs’ air pollution has on individuals in that country and the cost of collective health.
But air pollution is a problem that impacts us all – 100 per cent of the time – no matter where we live or the state of our health. And in order to improve anything, we have to be willing to change. Starting with our own behaviour.
So we want to know – what makes you care most about the quality of the air we share? Is it a healthier body, bank account or community?
The question of personal motivators is one we think about a lot when we’re developing social marketing campaigns about the outdoor environment and its effects on health. Our goal of making people more aware of an issue, helping them understand it and see how it is relevant to them personally, is the precursor to motivating people to take action – to change their own behaviour.
Not unlike other social topics, people feel connected to issues in different ways – and these connections are what motivate them to do something.
When it comes to air quality, parents who have kids suffering from asthma are more likely to be motivated by health concerns. Others may be motivated by their passion for the earth and all its species. What about you? Maybe it’s only relevant when the day comes that you are asked not to drive to work because of high health risk from particulate matter in the air. Or the cost of gas is so high you realize it’s not worth it to idle your car unnecessarily. Will it be the financial considerations that are the kicker to making you care about the air?
Protecting our air for environmental and human health reasons is a continuous challenge. Behaviour change is a slow process. The more we know about what motivates people to think about air quality, the better able we are to shape these conversations about our most vital life sustaining resource – air — in a way that will get more people to sit up and listen.
Can you help? Leave a comment on what your top motivator is, and tell us what country or province/state you are from.
Trust – Can’t Be Left Up in the Air
Beijing, China and San Luis Obispo County, California, are an ocean apart. But in the past few weeks, they both faced pressure from the media and the public in relation to air pollution.
In the case of Beijing, city air quality officials and the government have been increasingly called to task on the details of their air quality reporting, specifically the levels of particulate matter (PM) in the air. They’ve also been criticized based on conflicting air quality monitoring made available through the US Embassy in Beijing, which suggests air pollution levels are much higher than what the city reports. Just last week, Chinese officials bowed to some of that pressure by committing to upgrade their air index and to include levels of PM 2.5 in their data sharing, in addition to PM10.
In San Luis Obispo County, residents learned air quality research commissioned in 2008 to measure particulate matter near a recreational vehicle area has been accused of being flawed. The study was completed to help officials determine how to reduce PM traveling downwind from a popular off-road recreation park. It’s important research with an admirable goal. However, if people doubt the study process, will they have faith in the results?
And that’s the tie; public trust – earning it, maintaining it and protecting it. No small feat when trust is your most valuable asset in communicating about air quality – whether you’re a public, private or not-for-profit organization.
Air quality reporting has become a vital public health service that is gaining more and more attention. We know from our research on branding and communicating air quality indices, people are more likely to make decisions about how to manage their own health, and how to be stewards of air, if the air quality information comes from what they consider a trustworthy source – whether that be a health care provider or a government agency.
Organizations that report air quality have an obligation to uphold an open and transparent system for measuring, reporting and communicating relevant messages so people, no matter where they live, can have faith in the information, and the information source.
Do you understand and have faith in the air quality information in your community?
The Power of 7 (Million)
We are constantly searching for, and evaluating, communication and outreach efforts related to air quality, health and environmental stewardship. And our curiosity has no borders. We are as interested in community consultation about air quality in Beijing, China as we are to our home province of British Columbia.
Pan Shiyi is founder of SOHO China, the largest real estate development company in Beijing. He is one of the most influential business leaders in China. He’s my age (middle?), obviously ambitious and extremely savvy when it comes to using social media. His personal blog is hosted on more than 10 major portals and gets visits in the millions. He’s active on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, where he has 7 million followers.
Recently, Pan Shiyi focused some of his corporate citizenship karma on the issue of air quality in Beijing.
Interesting how a few days ago, the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China, responding to increased public pressure, made a commitment to providing improved monitoring and access to information on air pollution. They announced new air quality monitoring standards to include the minute levels of particulate matter known as PM 2.5 as well ozone and C02 levels – by 2016.
Health and environment scientists the globe over concur that PM2.5 is harmful to health. China’s concentrations of PM2.5 are currently several times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe. It’s also credited as one of the major causes of Beijing haze – haze that is not only harmful to health but to Beijing’s economy as well.
Any surprise the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China announced new commitments not long after someone as influential as Pan Shiyi jumped on the air pollution band wagon – potentially empowering the voices of many millions in China.
Was Pan Shiyi moved to advocate for improved air quality by moral motives, or did he recognize the economic costs associated with air pollution? People don’t want to live and work (or buy expensive condos) where they can’t breathe?
Whatever his motive, we salute him. Active public involvement is driving political change.