Chinese scholars apply Marxism to the study of ozone
As China is suffering from heavy air pollution, including high ozone ( O₃) levels, some environmental research fellows are trying to study the environmental monitoring and analysis of ozone from the perspective of Marxist philosophy.
In an article published in the Environment and Substantial Development, a journal under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, on August 10, eight research fellows and engineers, who focus on environmental studies, have applied Marxism to the environmental monitoring and analysis of ozone, aiming to analyze the causes and formations of a specific heavy ozone pollution case from Au- gust 11 to 14 in 2015.
The paper has made a splash on the Chinese social media with many people saying that they were shocked by the combination of Marxism and environmental studies.
The Global Times contacted the paper’s first author, a PhD student with the College of Water Sciences at Beijing Normal University, but he refused to comment on the paper.
The research received a lot of funding including from national technology support projects and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, according to the paper.
The paper’s abstract says that Marxism is used to analyze the issues that occur in the monitoring of ozone and serves to offer guidance to ozone treatment and the improvement of environment. The research result will help improve public health service.
The authors note in the paper that before 2013, the public paid attention to the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matters. Along with the improvement in living standards, the popularity of monitoring equipment and the enhancement of awareness about environmental protection, the new air quality standards released in 2013 added the limiting value of the average density of PM 2.5, PM 10 and the O₃. The new standards also updated the analytical methods for the pollutants.
The paper says the changes reflect the Marxist epistemology, which states that in cognitive development process, people’s cognition will leap from sensitive level to rational level and then leap to practice.
The paper stresses the importance of air pollution control, which it says is an issue concerning people’s livelihood and well- being. If the issue cannot be handled properly, the government’s image, performance record and credibility will be greatly eroded. Marxism believes that people make their own history, social wealth creators and decisive forces of social changes, the paper said.