Discovery News: Earth Impacts News

Airing About Chinese Air

I've been noticing something odd about online comments made about articles which report anything not particularly wonderful about China (including comments submitted about my own last post regarding Beijing's air quality). Invariably there are are knee jerk comments attacking the writer for even mentioning anything negative. This "China is terrific right or wrong" attitude in the blogosphere seems like a fairly new phenomenon to me and smacks of organized Chinese nationalism.

Like nationalists all over the world, it has no place in scientific matters of air quality. Why? Because nationalism, by definition, is anti-scientific (just read up on the Nazi's absurd biological beliefs if you want a particularly grotesque example). Nationalists can't stomach a scientific result that runs counter to their "My country, right or wrong" belief. So they attack the science, scientist and even any science writer who reports the science.

What Chinese nationalists don't and won't understand is that there is nothing remotely anti-China about telling the truth about the nasty air in Beijing. That air is, after all, hurting Chinese people far more than any other people (although it does cause harm elsewhere as well). It's the folks who ignore or downplay the problem who are, by their actions, anti-Chinese. Anyone who truly cares about China's people -- rather than being obsessed with China's perfection or supremacy -- cares about the air quality in Beijing. Anyway, it's not the only polluted city in the world and no one is saying it is. But it just happens to be where the Olympics are being held, which means it's under the microscope. So bad stuff comes up. Duh. That's the way the media works when there is little or no government control.   

And just for the record, I have nothing personally against China or the Chinese. On the contrary, I very much want the people of Beijing to have cleaner air for their own sake. I grew up deep in the smog of Southern California and have some experience breathing poison. It sucks. It hurts. It kills people. So to you Chinese nationalists out there, take heart: As the world proved after the recent horrific earthquake, we actually like you guys a lot and wish you the best. Sheath those sabers.
Beijing picture: AP

Hunger for Earth Science News?

The hardest thing about writing this blog has been facing the multitude of fascinating happenings in Earth science with an ice cube's chance in a Panama summer of ever doing an adequate job (while also writing news stories, btw, and raising two boys, and not neglecting my wife, house, dog, etc.). Luckily, I'm about to get a lot of help. If you are a Discovery News reader (many thanks, btw), you'll soon notice a new byline there, that of science writer Michael Reilly. Like me, Reilly is a geologist by original training and a science journalist by trade. He's coming over to Discovery News from New Scientist and taking over the Earth science beat I have covered for ten years (yes, Discovery News has been around that long!). What's more, Reilly will soon start an Earth science-focused Discovery blog as well.

But that's only for starters. Earth science is about to get a heckuva lot more online attention at Discovery Channel via a still-gestating new info hub called Discovery Earth. At last, a website for everyone which is devoted to the science of our planet! In mid-September Discovery Earth will launch and join the ranks of Discovery Space and Discovery Tech. Discovery Earth will have news, commentaries, videos and a team of expert Earth bloggers who will dig though everything from extreme weather and volcanoes to geosciences in culture. If you hunger for news about our home planet, Discovery Earth will be your new homepage.

As for me, running Discovery Earth is my new mission. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to keep me and my team on our toes. Keep the comments coming!