People power: monitoring pollution in China

China has the world’s largest continuous emissions monitoring system, but citizen help is needed for it to be effective against industrial pollution. By Niu Yuhan, China Dialogue Appeals to Chinese regulators via social media can reduce emissions violations by companies and bring down levels of air and water pollution, researchers from the University of Chicago have found. The team used open data to identify violations and recruited volunteers to file public appeals for action to local regulators, via social media platform Weibo, and private appeals, via a government hotline or messages to government officials or firms. Read more: People power: monitoring pollution in