Inventor Suggests Pollution Solution is People-Powered Fans

In a city desperate for solutions to its ongoing air pollution crisis, this latest one is the most hands-on yet.

An anti-smog proposal suggests Beijing can blow away local air pollution by coordinating 15 million residents to simultaneously wave large fans at the same time.

The proposal comes in the form of a patent filed to the China State Intellectual Property Office this past March. The patent details specially-designed "anti-smog fans" that are to be provided by Chinese government departments to the public at large, who are then ordered to stand outside and wave the fans at a scheduled time.

The inventor of the patent, Chen Qingchen (a pseudonym), told The Paper that he has complete faith in his invention.

"Of course I believe it can work... otherwise I wouldn't have spent so much time and effort into researching it," said Chen, explaining that he has spent seven to eight years of his life researching his invention.

And, he's done the math. By continually waving his specially-patented fans over the course of an hour, Chen has calculated that 15 million people can push 10.8 trillion cubic meters of air a total distance of 68 kilometers, far away from the 396 square kilometer land space of Beijing.

Chen described his anti-smog invention as "low cost, highly effective, and has no secondary impact on the environment."

Chen's plan is the latest of a long line of proposed anti-smog measures that are as creative as they are far-fetched. To overcome the city's severe air pollution, Beijing residents have resorted to measures like anti-smog tea, anti-smog share bikes, a smog-free tower, and even considered building "air corridors" designed to encourage stagnant polluted air to vacate the city center. Beijing has even put its faith into anti-smog water cannons found to have been suspiciously parked next to air monitoring stations.

Although Beijing residents aren't particularly known for harboring anti-scientific theories such as vaccination conspiracies nor global warming hoaxes, some people have taken to non-conventional health practices. Beijing residents have taken to lying upon sun-warmed rocks as a way to cure health ailments, a practice that occurs elsewhere in China, sometimes even with cold rocks.

Chen thinks his anti-smog proposal can only work to serve the public good. Often away on business, Chen said he wants to do his part to combat Beijing air pollution and its hampering effect of "shutting down factories and putting children out of school."

"Smog has severely impacted people's lives, I'm just trying to do my part for society," said Chen, who had taken a pseudonym that literally means "Society Cleans Dust."

Although Chinese reports have encouraged online ridicule of his invention this past week, Chen isn't deterred. "If these people deriding me online were just able to see this invention and how it works, it would be better," Chen said.

The Paper reported that Chen ended the interview when he was pressed for concrete proof to his claims.

Chen did not disclose his profession, but admitted to being an "invention enthusiast." He had filed for five patents in 2016 that include nostril swimming plugs and a timed mosquito extinguisher.

Images: NetEase (news.163.com)

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