The State Department’s Air Quality Program ultimately became an example of smart and efficient diplomacy, boosting America’s soft power while bringing about real-world change. “I have never seen a US government initiative have such an immediate and dramatic impact within the country,” former US ambassador Gary Lock told the Washington Post in 2013. American Diplomacy Museum.
Before it was suddenly killed, State Department officials, researchers, and the public were able to see international air quality data collected from the US embassy at AirNow, a database maintained by the EPA, and Zephair, an app designed by the State Department to support foreign diplomats. Previous Web Page It is no longer available. The app showed at least half a dozen embassies stopped reporting normal data mid-Tuesday, before the feature was completely disabled on Wednesday, according to tests run by Wired.
Westervelt, who describes Dosair as “the bedrock of international air quality work,” says he previously received a grant from the State Department to help expand the programme in Africa. He says he was worried about its fate last week when he learned that his grant had ended with thousands of other people at the State Department and the U.S. International Development Agency.
A diplomatic victory
By the end of 2011, the aviation surveillance program was at a major moment of public awareness in China. The pollution in Beijing has become so bad that the city has had to close airports. The State Department bot was again blowing away the reading of “Crazy Bad” on Twitter, but official Chinese government figures say the atmosphere is “slightly contaminated.”
However, Chinese citizens have decided to trust the number of US embassies. Many expressed disappointment on social media, urging the government to take action to clear the air. It became “awakening of a London fog-like environment,” says a former US diplomat. With a little understandable twist today, the Chinese government officially adopted the US State Department’s method of reporting air quality. He also made great efforts to clear air pollution and worked with the EPA on climate and environmental issues.
The Dosair program was also welcomed in many other countries, especially those that did not have the existing infrastructure to collect air quality data, says Westervelt. In some cases, local governments adjusted their measurements with their own, low-cost aviation monitors using high-quality data collected at the US embassy.
In these countries, ending support for air quality monitoring programs could hinder air cleaning progress, Westervelt said. “Unless there is quantitative evidence, we cannot actually mitigate the air pollution problem,” he explains. “Losing that is a pretty big blow.”
A clear economic winner
Over the past month, the Trump administration has significantly cut federal funds and staff as part of a cost-cutting initiative led by Elon Musk’s so-called Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE). However, air quality monitoring programs are not too expensive for the US State Department to maintain. Westervelt estimates that most surveillance equipment has already been purchased and the main costs are related to maintenance, which means it will cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.
The programme, Akshaya Ja, assistant professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, who co-authored the 2022 study, said it demonstrated how relatively low-cost information technology can be used to spur major reductions in air pollution. When the US embassy began publishing measurements in cities, he said he often raised public awareness of pollution and pressured host countries to take action to clear the air. JHA found that searches for the term “air quality” for the term “air quality” steadily increased after the monitor was installed. Air pollution levels estimated by satellite measurements have also decreased.
In the long run, JHA research also found that the program actually saves money for the State Department. “Our estimates show that with this kind of difficult payment, the monitor saves around $34,000 a year on the embassy median,” Jha says.
Creating a world where fewer people die from diseases related to air pollution, even if they exceed difficult compensation, reduces the need for costly treatment. “They’re a clear winner in terms of profit compared to the costs of this program,” Jha says.
