Most Air Polluted Cities in China
Analytical Essay 1
Katie Magers
Period 4
“Let the naming and shaming begin”(CNN). The Chinese government and the population of the nation are getting their index fingers ready and their cackling voices warmed up for prime aversive conditioning for the results of the list of the ten most air-polluted cities on China. This list is to be followed up each and every month, along with a parallel list of the best environmentally conscious cities in the nation, in the hopes that national humiliation will push positive environmental action. Recent studies by the Asian Development Bank show that the worst air quality levels in recorded history and seven of the world’s top ten most air-polluted cities were in China. The central government is taking measures to stop approving coal-fired power plants in heavily polluted industrial areas, as well as proposing a national blueprint to lower the concentration of harmful particles in the air, (most are caused by the burning of coal), by at least 10% in years to come. The government of China can only do so much especially when posed with the fundamental challenge of motivating a large mass of people, gaining their support, and calling them to action. They find the simple complexity in finding a strong enough incentive to bend the will and change the behavior of 1.238 billion people and even create instill a nationalist pride in each, to put a cause for their efforts. Therefore, as a political body whose dire need to push their agenda and better the lives their people, resort to shame as an incentive applying to both economic and social aspects to achieve a healthier state.
Confucius laid down the framework and constructed the basis for a “shame-honor society” in the eastern world, which was the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining social order of mass populations through the inculcation of shame and threat of ostracism. As described here by the man himself, "Lead the people with administrative
Katie Magers
Period 4
“Let the naming and shaming begin”(CNN). The Chinese government and the population of the nation are getting their index fingers ready and their cackling voices warmed up for prime aversive conditioning for the results of the list of the ten most air-polluted cities on China. This list is to be followed up each and every month, along with a parallel list of the best environmentally conscious cities in the nation, in the hopes that national humiliation will push positive environmental action. Recent studies by the Asian Development Bank show that the worst air quality levels in recorded history and seven of the world’s top ten most air-polluted cities were in China. The central government is taking measures to stop approving coal-fired power plants in heavily polluted industrial areas, as well as proposing a national blueprint to lower the concentration of harmful particles in the air, (most are caused by the burning of coal), by at least 10% in years to come. The government of China can only do so much especially when posed with the fundamental challenge of motivating a large mass of people, gaining their support, and calling them to action. They find the simple complexity in finding a strong enough incentive to bend the will and change the behavior of 1.238 billion people and even create instill a nationalist pride in each, to put a cause for their efforts. Therefore, as a political body whose dire need to push their agenda and better the lives their people, resort to shame as an incentive applying to both economic and social aspects to achieve a healthier state.
Confucius laid down the framework and constructed the basis for a “shame-honor society” in the eastern world, which was the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining social order of mass populations through the inculcation of shame and threat of ostracism. As described here by the man himself, "Lead the people with administrative