Environmentally vulnerable or sensitive groups exhibiting varying concerns toward air pollution can drive government response to improve air quality

Wang, Zhaohua, Zhao, Wenhui, Wang, Bo, Liu, Jie, Xu, Shuling, Zhang, Bin, Sun, Yefei, Shi, Han and Guan, Dabo (2022) Environmentally vulnerable or sensitive groups exhibiting varying concerns toward air pollution can drive government response to improve air quality. iScience, 25 (6). ISSN 2589-0042

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Abstract

Air pollution seriously threatens human health, and its consequences are particularly prevalent among environmentally vulnerable or sensitive groups. However, whether the concerns among these groups are different and how they affect air pollution governance remain unclear. Here, we extract 3.8 million haze-related posts from China's Sina Weibo and analyze the concerns raised by these groups by constructing an air pollution notability index. The results show that protection is the key theme for women aged 20–35 years, while elderly individuals are easily influenced by haze-related product ads yet lack awareness of scientific-based protection. Concerns shared by young individuals are more effective in pressuring the government in cities that experience higher levels of pollution. Concerns shared by women are more effective in cities that experience lower levels of pollution. This study evidences the influence of the public concerns conveyed via social media on air pollution governance in China.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Reference No. 72141302, 72074026, 71625003 and 72140002), Major Research Projects in Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education (No. 21JZD027), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 21GLC057), and Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 9212016).
Uncontrolled Keywords: atmospheric science,environmental health,environmental issues,pollution,general,sdg 11 - sustainable cities and communities,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of International Development
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 01 Jun 2022 13:30
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2022 03:47
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/85290
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104460

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