Paper short abstract:

In China concern with climate change is greatly overwhelmed by another identity of air pollution: smog. This paper attempts to address why Chinese society has stressed one identity over another and how this duality impacts sustainability.

Paper long abstract:

The global concern with climate change as a result of human induced air pollution, often identified as greenhouse gases, is the penultimate example of global environmental politics in action. However, in China this level of concern with climate change is greatly overwhelmed by another identity of air pollution: smog. This paper attempts to address why Chinese society has stressed one identity over another and how this duality impacts sustainability. One explanation shows that this duality is the creation of a discourse within the media and that the Chinese government is very active in shaping this discourse as they see fit. However, the spread of such a discourse by the media and government is formed in a dialectal reaction to social perceptions and cultural interpretations of air pollution as a material which impacts the lives of a billion individuals. This paper argues that it is the perception of smog as being socially "near" which allows the discourse to resonate with the Chinese populace in a way that clearly takes precedence over a concern with climate change which for most is perceived as being socially "far". The paper will consider how these notions of nearness and farness structure a social discourse which further entrenches the possibility that a society will suffer from environmental problems. Finally, it is necessary to critique this notion of a dual identity air pollution as there is much to gain by bringing the two identities together which could be beneficial for sustainable politics in China and beyond.