HCP Abstract and Annotated Bibliography 

Abstract:

Air Pollution and Climate Change in China

China has been getting into trouble for air pollution and haze in recent decades. Especially these recent years, air pollution has been so severe in Northern cities in China. China’s severe air pollution has some similarities with Los-Angeles-type smog happened in 1970s, and London Fog of 1952. While, the cities in China are mainly suffering from PM2.5, which is a particulate matter with diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less. Northern cities in China have more severe air pollution than other regions due to reasons such as: more industries of fossil fuels in Northern China, coal heating in winter in Northern China, the increasing of vehicles usage, and the climate of less wind and rainfall. As air pollution began to be more visible and caused problems for longer period of time, the Chinese government started to change course on air pollution regulation (Saikawa). This essay seeks to historically contextualize the air pollution in China, particularly in Northern China. The historical scope of my analysis will span from 1991, when haze had been a particularly acute problem in Southeast Asia, till now, China has been stuck in the severe air pollution. Using scholarly sources from the fields of environmental sciences, political science, and air pollution regulation, I would argue that the air pollution and climate change has occurred in China and it needs the stricter regulations and efforts to change the situation.

Annotated Bibliography:

1 Chen, Yuyu, Avraham Ebenstein, Michael Greenstone, and Hongbin Li. “Evidence on the Impact of Sustained Exposure to Air Pollution on Life Expectancy from China’s Huai River Policy.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 110, number 32, 6 August 2013, pages 12936-12941.

Yuyu Chen is from the Applied Economics Department, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Avraham Ebenstein is from Department of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus 91905, Israel. Michael Greenstone is from Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and National Bureau of Economic Research. Hongbin Li is from China Data Center and Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. All these four authors are professional researchers of China’s air pollution and the relationship between air pollution and life expectancy from China’s Huai River policy. This article helps me study  the field of life expectancy and physical health under the air pollution in China. It also helps me a lot in understanding China’s policy in Huai River, which provided free winter heating via the provision of coal for boilers in the cities north of the Huai River but denied heat to the south. 

2 Eri, Saikawa. “China’s War on Air Pollution.” China Research Center.   October 15, 2014. 2014: Vol. 13, No.2

Dr. Eri Saikawa is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and is an associate of the China Research Center. Eri Saikawa used different ways to explore the air pollution in China after 2008. She also explored the air pollution policy, auto industry and air pollution, air pollution and climate change, and new policies in the article. This article will help me grasp the points of the air pollution situation in China, and think more about the policies and regulations China’s government can cope with air pollution.  

3 Sun, Yele, Chen Chen, Yingjie Zhang, Weiqi Xu, et. “Rapid formation and evolution of an extreme haze episode in Northern China during winter 2015.” International journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2014 Sep; 11(9): 8909–8923.

 The authors are in State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; center for Excellence in Urban Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Key Laboratory of Environmental Optics & Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei. This essay helps me understand the four stages in the life cycle of a severe winter haze episode. Based on the study they made, we could clearly see how the severe haze generates and vanishes. This essay helps me to know about haze in a more scientific way.

4 Zhang, Junfeng and Jonathan M. Samet. “Chinese haze versus Western smog: lessons learned.” Journal of Thoracic Disease. 2015 Jan; 7(1): 3–13.

Dr.Junfeng Zhang is in Nicholas School of the Environment & Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University. Jonathan M. Samet, is the MD and MS in Department of Preventive Medicine and Institute for Global Health, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California. They study the environmental issues, especially the air pollution. This printed article in Journal of Thoracic Disease will help me learn professionally about the formation of PM 2.5 of China’s haze. Meanwhile, the research of history of air pollution and its health consequences could also help me study the historical origin of China’s air pollution.

For the abstract part of HCP, I did some research and tried to know whether it was easy or not to find related resources about haze in China. To be honestly, the professor’s introduction and examples about abstract helped me a lot in writing my abstract. I had noticed that there were some points I needed to pay attention to when writing my abstract such as the specific time, case, and historical views about the topic of Northern Chinese haze. Some statements such as “This essay seeks to historically contextualize” “The historical scope of my analysis will span from” and “I argue that” helped me a lot in composing my abstract because it told me what a good abstract looked like. For the research part, I listened to professor’s advices and searched in library sources to find the related articles and research papers about haze in Northern China. The video also helped me a lot in defining a research topic and abstract.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/583e59zk0beneez/W17_DefiningAResearchTopic.mov?dl=0

From this important comment of our professor, I realized that there were some problems in my annotated bibliography. The first one was the MLA formatting of Works Cited entries. Second, the content of bibliography, I needed to add the journal of publication and evidence used by the authors, and finally, the grammar issue. I then paid attention to these points when writing my HCP first draft. These comments really helped me a lot and pointed out the problems I had.