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‘Green’ activist needs to start walking the walk
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IF a person cannot match his or her words with actions, he or she is usually described as a double-dealer, or worse, hypocrite.
There is a lot of double dealing on the issue of environmental protection, especially on how to tackle the smog, now a daily irritant.
Given their wealth and media exposure, China’s elites naturally are scrutinized the most on the disparity between their environmental pledges and their personal conduct. And no environmental hypocrisy is more reprehensible than the fact that some self-styled environmental activists, in pledging efforts to tackle the smog, are doing the very opposite, exacerbating it.
Pan Shiyi, a property tycoon and CEO of SOHO China, a real estate developer, is one example. Pan is an avid blogger who writes passionately about his anger over PM2.5 — the tiny airborne particles responsible for haze and lung damage — and calls on authorities to tackle it.
Since he has a large following on weibo, Pan has made a name of himself as an environmentalist. Yet his environmental activism revealed its true colors recently when he illegally parked his gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle on the highway leading to Beijing Capital International Airport. Toll station staff ordered him to leave.
Gas guzzler
According to his weibo posting, the property mogul was trying to take pictures of the haze blanketing the toll booths when a security guard ordered him to leave, saying parking on the highway was prohibited and dangerous.
In what appeared to be arrogance and a possible abuse of his prerogatives, Pan, a deputy to Beijing’s municipal legislature, showed his lawmaker’s certificate. He was asked to leave nonetheless.
What’s notable about the incident is not that the flamboyant developer expected the guard to bend the rules a bit, or that the guard showed backbone and insisted on compliance.
While it’s unclear why the developer was so smug about publicizing his violation of traffic rules online, what really sparked the outcry was the fact that Pan drove a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV, which has a whopping fuel capacity of 5.7 liters. A gas guzzler of the most voracious kind.
People find it contradictory that one claims to care so much about air quality and at the same time contributes mightily to emissions and pollution. It’s as ironic and offensive as someone who promotes animal welfare and still wears fur, his critics say.
The irony is compounded thanks to the uncanny ability of China’s web vigilantes to spot telltale signs of deception.
It was exposed that the camera Pan used to take pictures of the smog was worth about 250,000 yuan (US$41,666), and the pictures he uploaded on weibo appeared staged.
In two pictures, he was shown taking photos of the smog-enveloped toll gates with his back facing the camera; in another snapshot, he was pictured showing his lawmaker certificate to an unseen security guard, in hopes of getting a break, or even being fawned on.
Apparently, our image-conscious developer took a photographer along to ensure good publicity for his good deeds.
One inevitably asks, is it a genuine show of concern about the environment, or is it a contrived act of theater by a narcissistic play actor?
And the list of narcissistic acts goes on.
In January, Pan accepted a friend’s invitation and flew all the way from Beijing to Shanghai, just to monitor the PM2.5 levels in Shanghai metro trains. Throughout the journey aboard the city’s Metro Line 2, the beaming developer collected air samples with a portable monitoring device as curious passengers around looked on. And of course, he was mobbed by photographers.
Public stunt
Because he chose to take the subway during off-peak hours — and spared himself the ordeal of being sandwiched by Shanghai’s notorious Metro crowds — one is left wondering about the relevance of these PM2.5 readings.
Again, what’s the point of these sporadic surveys if not as a publicity stunt?
We don’t know if Pan has a hidden agenda in promoting indoor standards of PM2.5 levels — an initiative he champions — but given his property developer status, it isn’t far-fetched to presume a link between his stunts and the next selling point of his property.
Even a toddler knows one has to act upon one’s own words to be taken seriously, yet an ostentatious businessman like Pan regrettably needs to be preached to about the importance of honoring one’s pledges with true commitment, instead of pretension. Contrary to his half-hearted environmental endeavors, there always are people who lead by example.
Riding a bike
People’s Daily reported on March 7 that Wu Bixia, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, rode a bike to the annual session of the national legislature in Beijing on March 3. Wu is a professor of vocal music and opera at the Central Conservatory of Music.
“Riding a bicycle is the most environmentally friendly, and frugal means of transport. During my term (as NPC deputy) I will always attend meetings by bike,” Wu was quoted as saying.
By calling attention to the benefit of cycling in cutting emissions, she hoped to highlight the role of individual efforts in battling smog. Indeed, any swift improvement of the air quality is out of the question unless more citizens like Wu are willing to embrace onerous curbs on their rights, such as the right to drive cars.
Only when privileged politicians and business elites step out of the comfort of their well-sealed, air-filtered cars and breathe the same filthy air as we breathe, can they get a real picture of how polluted the air is, and how urgent the need is for action, not lip service.
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