The Air Program of the State Department has finally become an example of smart, effective diplomacy, which increased the American tender power while introducing changes in the real world. “I’ve never seen the initiative of the US government, which has such an immediate, dramatic influence in a given country,” said Gary Locke, former US ambassador to China, in 2013. The project was so effective that it was presented on the website. National Museum of American Diplomacy.
Before he was suddenly killed, officials of the State Department, researchers and society could see international air quality data collected from American embassies on Airnow, a database run by EPA, as well as on Zephair, an application designed by the State Department to facilitate us diplomats abroad. . former website He was unavailable; The application showed that at least half a dozen ambassads stopped reporting regular data in the middle of Tuesday before the function was completely disabled on Wednesday, according to the tests carried out by Wired.
Westervelt, which describes Dosair as “the basis of international work in the field of air quality”, says that he had previously received subsidies from the State Department to facilitate expand the program in Africa. He says he was worried about his fate when he learned last week that his subsidies were resolved with thousands of others in the Department of State and the United States International Development Agency.
Diplomatic triumph
By the end of 2011, the air monitoring program had its great moment of public recognition in China. Pollution became so bad in Beijing that the city had to close the airport. The Bot of the State Department again blew up on Twitter “crazy bad” readings, but the official Chinese governmental data said that the air was only “slightly polluted”.
However, the Chinese audience decided to trust the US embassy number. Many people expressed disappointment in social media and forced the government to take action to tidy the air. This has become “an awakening of the environment similar to London’s fog,” says a former US diplomat. In the bend, which is almost incomprehensible today, the Chinese government even officially adopted the US Department of State Method to report air quality. Significant efforts were also made to tidy air pollution and cooperated with EPA in climatic and environmental matters.
Dosair has also been welcome in many other countries, especially those that did not have existing infrastructure to collect air quality data, says Westervelt. In some cases, local governments used high -quality data collected in the US embassies to calibrate readings on their own lower air monitors.
According to Westervelt, it says that for these countries, the end of support for the air quality monitoring program may hinder their progress in air purification. “You can’t really alleviate the problem of air pollution, unless you have quantitative evidence,” he explains. “Losing is quite a big blow.”
Clear economic winner
Over the past month, the Trump administration reduced funds and employees throughout the Federal Government as part of the initiative to reduce costs led by the so -called government efficiency department Elon Musk (Doge). But the air quality monitoring program is not very exorbitant for the US Department of State. Westervelt estimates that it costs only tens of thousands of dollars a year, because most of the monitoring equipment has already been purchased and the main expenses are related to maintenance.
The program has shown how relatively affordable information technologies can be used to stimulate a significant reduction in air pollution, says Akshaya Jha, an assistant professor and public policy at the University of Carnegie Mellon, who was co -author of the study 2022. When the American embassy began to publish readings in the city, she often raised social awareness about pollution and he has been struggling with press on the host country to take action to tidy the air. Jha stated that the local search on Google “air quality” increased constantly after installing the monitors. The levels of air pollution also collapsed, estimated on the basis of satellite measurements.
In the long run, JHA’s research has also shown that the program actually saves money for the State Department, which is required to pay additional compensation for living in more perilous environments. “Our estimates indicate that the monitors save the Central Embassy of around USD 34,000 a year in this type of difficult payments,” says Jha.
Even in addition to arduous compensations, creating a world in which fewer people die because of diseases related to air pollution would reduce the need for exorbitant drugs. “As for the benefits of this program in relation to its costs, this is a clear winner,” says Jha.