“We are well aware that taking care of all the environmental issues takes a lot of effort. Meanwhile, we hope the society sees our effort for less emissions over these years.”

These words are from a recent interview with China National Heavy Duty Truck Group(中国重汽), a major car company in China. Nearly three months since the documentary film "Under the Dome(穹顶之下)" was released, China is anticipating a brighter future in terms of environmental protection. Regarding this, the efforts of Chai Jing, a formal journalist of CCTV, cannot be ignored.

It all started when the journalist found out that her daughter had a tumor. The baby received an operation right after being born, which fortunately ended in success. However, this triggered Chai’s concern about the baby’s health as well as the environment around her. The city, covered in smog half the time, looked simply too dangerous. Throughout the year of 2014, Chai conducted an in-depth research about air pollution. With the help of many experts and officials, the result-the video-was released on February 28, 2015. 103 minutes and 55 seconds long, it immediately became a worldwide sensation.

The title "Under the Dome" might seem familiar to some readers. It is the name of a popular drama show in the U.S., which contains a plot about a dome that cuts a small town off from the rest of the world. In the video, Chai states that we are just the same, locked inside this huge dome of air pollution. Then she goes on to ask: What is smog? Where does it come from? And, what should we do about it?

PM 2.5 particles, which have received attention lately, are very small dust particles that cannot be seen by the human eye. Chai used a machine to detect how much of this we take in every day, and the result was 5 times the average in China. Once the dust comes into our body, it disturbs our respiratory and circulatory systems, at times even causing cancer. According to past documents, it turns out that smog is not a recent problem; people had been mistaking it for fog for decades.

These dust particles come from various chemicals, usually created by fossil fuels that we use in our daily lives. Coal is a major cause of the pollution. Countless companies that emit toxic gases are not being monitored properly; much of the coal has low quality, and is not being cleaned, either. Another problem would be gas that operates vehicles. Many cars pretend to be following the law on the quality of oil, but nobody is there to restrict or punish them, for there is no specific law that tells us who is in responsibility. The Ministry of Environment is clearly doing an unsatisfactory job, but nobody is willing to put environmental concerns before economical development.

What can we do at this point? Chai advocates using more natural gas instead of coal; to individuals, she advises to call 12369 for help with air purification, and most importantly, protect ourselves well.

The Chinese Government praised Chai Jing and her film; however, only three days after the release, the government banned the video in major websites. However, this does not mean that this documentary will be forgotten; the impact continues, just as in the car company. Hopefully, more governments, more corporations and more individuals will be inspired by this film to contribute in making the air cleaner, for ourselves and for the future generations!