The US stops sharing air quality data from embassies worldwide
173 comments
·March 6, 2025defrost
ukoki
I remember living in Beijing when the US Embassary Air Quality Twitter account tweeted "Error: value above measurable range" (paraphrasing) -- that was a fun day.
thaumasiotes
> In China, for example, data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing famously contradicted official government reports, showing worse pollution levels than authorities acknowledged. It led to China improving air quality.
That program, by the way, simultaneously managed to antagonize the Chinese government while being incredibly popular with the Chinese people.
It's not something I would expect a US administration hostile to China to cut.
kelnos
> It's not something I would expect a US administration hostile to China to cut.
I think in this case it's just a result of the haphazard approach to all of these cuts where nothing has actually been analyzed and planned. They are cutting things without thinking about repercussions, and of course their knee-jerk response to air-quality measurement is "it has to do with the climate and climate change, so we must suppress it".
Or it's even more "innocent" than that: they were given a target dollar amount or percentage to cut, and they're scrambling to find ways to get there, without really thinking things through.
BobbyJo
I honestly don't see how you can cut government spending at this point without being haphazard. Every administration for the last 70+ years has increased real spending (not to mention expanding executive power along the way, which got us here).
consumer451
> a US administration hostile to China...
Based on actions alone, what is the evidence for this?
maxglute
There's no point anymore since everyone has AQI & PM2.5 meters.
Incredibly popular is questionable, definitely among tier1 libtards in embassy and consulate cities on twitter at the time. There was just as much nationalist on renren then weibo who thought this was US interference.
>> It led to China improving air quality.
This is charitably western propaganda trying to take credit by fabricating notion that muh free speech can push CCP to change. Reality is BJ recognized pollution issue and had renewable policy underway a few years before this i.e. moving extra polluting factories out, controlling construction dust, vehicle registration systems, better emission standards etc. There was going to be coordinated effort to bring AQI down to <100s during 2008 Olympics and try to make it stick after, US Embassy was trying to stir shit leading up. Like if US embassy AQI shitposts was actually significant in pushing PRC enviromental policies, it would be an incredible own goal that pushed PRC to dominate renewable production chains and EVs while bankrupting western incumbants.
jandrewrogers
Almost all global sensing data published by the US receives a lot of negative pushback from other countries around the world. I don’t think most people are aware of this.
The reasons are myriad. It makes it harder for other governments to control narratives in their own countries. It undermines efforts of governments to develop their own capacity; the US gives it away for free but those countries are not the customer and it does not serve them per se. It sets a much higher bar for domestic implementation than they have the capacity to implement. There is a sense the US exploits this data for their own ends. It doesn’t just irritate China, it irritates everyone.
Making the issue more political, the US edits and censors the data it publishes for its own purposes. This isn’t a secret but it taints the perception of US neutrality when making this data available.
The geopolitics and realpolitik of international sensing data is not clean.
achempion
What is political in sharing scientific measurements? Can you point to a specific person who is irritated by it? Why it irritates you personally?
watwut
Current USA leadership is not concerned with negative pushback from abroad.
JamisonM
> Making the issue more political, the US edits and censors the data it publishes for its own purposes. This isn’t a secret but it taints the perception of US neutrality when making this data available.
First I have heard of this, what's the source for the US editing & censoring global sensing data?
NooneAtAll3
I wonder what data on the US by others is there
keybored
> Making the issue more political, the US edits and censors the data it publishes for its own purposes. This isn’t a secret but it taints the perception of US neutrality when making this data available.
Less doublespeak version: The US edits and censors the data it publishes for its own purposes. Thus the data is not viewed as neutral.
The neutrality of some entity is not set by default by God and then “tainted” by their very own actions. The neutrality or lack thereof can be reasoned about directly.
paulddraper
They weren’t targeting China.
EGreg
Would you expect them to cut the IRS, if they're trying to cut deficits?
Obama and Clinton (with Republican congresses) ACTUALLY cut deficits -- Clinton even got a surplus. Bush and Trump extended tax cuts which ballooned them back into trillions (also the trillion-dollar wars). A few quotes:
Cheney 2004 about deficits: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"
Trump 2017 about deficits: "Yeah, but I won't be here"
Clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX3a-2yrQwY
Andrew Samwick, Bush's chief economist: You are smart people. You know that the tax cuts have not fueled record revenues. You know what it takes to establish causality. You know that the first order effect of cutting taxes is to lower tax revenues. We all agree that the ultimate reduction in tax revenues can be less than this first order effect, because lower tax rates encourage greater economic activity and thus expand the tax base. No thoughtful person believes that this possible offset more than compensated for the first effect for these tax cuts. Not a single one.
And the Republicans have just done it again! Tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
jordanb
I kinda feel like you're not being charitable with the OP
My read is that the OP is saying that the air quality monitors in China were a massive soft-power win for the US, and it also shamed the Chinese government. So if you start from the assumption that this current administration sees the Chinese government as a rival who should be opposed, then this kind of effort that bypasses the Chinese government and provides a resource to the Chinese people should be supported.
If the administration claims to see China as a rival, but then cuts such an obviously beneficial project, reasonably, you gotta wonder if the administration is telling the truth about it's relationship with the Chinese government.
AnthonyMouse
> We all agree that the ultimate reduction in tax revenues can be less than this first order effect, because lower tax rates encourage greater economic activity and thus expand the tax base. No thoughtful person believes that this possible offset more than compensated for the first effect for these tax cuts. Not a single one.
This is kind of an embarrassing mistake for an economist.
The theory that lower taxes can increase tax revenues is that they increase the rate of GDP growth. For example, with a lower tax rate, GDP might grow at 8%/year instead of 4%/year. Under different circumstances the difference might be larger or smaller, but as long as the lower tax rate improves GDP growth at all, compounding will eventually cause it to yield higher tax revenue at the lower rate. 20% of 1.08^15 is more than 35% of 1.04^15, and 20% of 1.08^50 is more than 370% of 35% of 1.04^50.
This doesn't have to be an instantaneous effect for it to be real.
insane_dreamer
We were living in Beijing when that happened, and you cannot underestimate the impact that it had. It ultimately forced the Chinese government to publish the actual air quality data which in turn forced it to take significant action to improve air quality in Beijing.
seanmcdirmid
Same. One thing I remember was that Twitter (where the data was reported) got blocked at about the same time. 2010 was a bit nuts. The government tried to explain it away that the area near liangmaqiao was especially bad for Beijing, which was hilarious.
It didn’t actually get that much better when we left in August 2016, but I hear it is much better today. Also, anyone can buy an AQI sensor of Amazon these days for $90, so it’s difficult to keep AQI readings under wraps
andsoitis
Do you think Beijing will stop publishing actual and correct air quality data now?
yard2010
If there is no other source of truth it's easier for the government to change the data rather than the actual air quality.
maxglute
Everyone and their dog has air purifiers that measure AQI and PM2.5 in Chinese cities now.
yard2010
So, it's just enshitification. The failing-up kind. Enshitification ensues.
bolognafairy
No. Can we please not look for places to call enshitification with such desperation that the word looses all meaning?
mytailorisrich
This is still mission creep even if it is a low cost. In fact this often how focus is lost and costs accumulate...
It is not embassies' role to provide this service. It is quite reasonable to stop.
Of course people will argue that it was perhaps useful to the people of Beijing, New Delhi, etc. but the real question is what does this have to do with US embassies and the US government?
WhitneyLand
So do you also disagree with the premise of the government providing to this service, or only that it’s not the stated role of embassies to do it?
In deciding it’s quite reasonable to stop, is the thinking that “mission creep” = bad, so it justifies stopping something regardless of the big picture benefits? Or do you not consider the benefits significant?
Given a business with many departments, say you notice one department has some mission creep but somehow it’s also increasing profitability for the company overall.
What do you focus on - only mentioning stopping the department mission creep, or first mentioning people should make damn sure the value is preserved as they consider any reorganization?
mytailorisrich
I do not know the benefits, if any.
But that's actually besides the point, which is mission and scope. It is not the job of the US government (or of any foreign governments) to provide air quality data in cities around the world and so I find it reasonable if they decide to stop.
I feel the reactions are much too strong and emotional, probably because many people here have been riled up by Trump and Musk so now overreact to anything they announce.
speakspokespok
Seattle has - once again - entered the chat.
Edit: Gary Locke is a former governor of Washington State and a member of of the old guard, a member of the pre-internet Seattle. This is back when South Lake Union (where Amazon is now) was just trees and low rent commercial. It was the site of the local Greyhound bus station.
He was the first Asian American governor in the US. While he's not directly Seattle, it was his primary constituency and he married a prominent Seattle TV news caster and former beauty queen.
Later, he was the first Asian American ambassador to China, appointed by Barack Obama. His political career ran 30 years and I've heard his name mentioned for most of my life. [0]
BugsJustFindMe
What does any of this have to do with anything?
kelnos
For starters, don't complain about downvotes. It's boring and lazy.
But I think you're actually getting downvoted because your comment has no context. I have no idea what Seattle has to do with any of this; if you'd actually explained what Seattle is doing in this space, it would have been an informative, useful comment that could teach people something, and lead to more interesting discussion. But as-is, your comment is just a drive-by, low-effort nothing.
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irjustin
I downvoted because it's exactly as you say.
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eddythompson80
Not really sure what any of that has to do with anything. Seattle is second only to San Francisco in list of blue voting cities that have failed in addressing every single social problem over the last 25 years. Seattle political class and scene is one of the worst grifters in the country. They are just “blue” grifters, so we can’t criticize them despite their abysmal track record.
adamiscool8
>The stop in sharing data was “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network” read the statement, which added that embassies and consulates were directed to keep their monitors running and the sharing of data could resume in the future if funded was restored.
Hmm...
>The Washington Monument syndrome,[0] also known as the Mount Rushmore syndrome or the firemen first principle, is a term used to describe the phenomenon of government agencies in the United States cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. It has been used in reference to cuts in popular services such as national parks and libraries or to valued public employees such as teachers and firefighters, with the Washington Monument and Mount Rushmore being two of the most visible landmarks maintained by the National Park Service. This is done to put pressure on the public and lawmakers to rescind budget cuts.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_syndrome
jordanb
Would make sense if it was the executive trying to get more money allocated out of Congress. In this case, the money is allocated but the executive is choosing not to spend it "for government efficiency."
adamiscool8
Do you have a source for this? The article on says it's "due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network" but does not elaborate on the constraints. Given embassies clearly have latitude in funding their continued operations, I find it implausible the executive halted "air quality monitoring" and much more likely a disgruntled bureaucrat made a choice.
jordanb
Well, Congress hasn't passed a budget and the department is still working on previous year's budget. So either that money somehow ran out unexpectedly, or it's the work of Elon, Big Balls, and the gang.
epistasis
I don't think your link is comparable. Air quality data is not a high profile valued thing.
But it does sound "woke" and outside of what an incompetent know-nothing would say that the State Department shouldn't touch.
The "funding constraint" is almost certainly trying to rid embassies of the wokeness of monitoring pollution.
adamiscool8
>Air quality data is not a high profile valued thing.
Disagree completely - saying "we had to turn off the air quality data network" is vague enough to be plausibly blamed on budget cuts for a non-tech-savvy audience, while still having a significant enough impact to attract coverage from outlets like the NYT. This, in turn, creates another "pro-science" talking point to rally "The Resistance".
epistasis
Maybe to you, but not to any of the Trump voters I know. And not to a lot of other people, either. This is in the State Department, not EPA, and embassies spending resources on pollution monitoring sounds like the very epitome of government waste that DOGE is trying to eliminate.
It is not a "pro-science" talking point it is actually a real pro-science without the quotation marks talking point.
Science has been completely under attack for every second this administration has been in power, in every single way, from funding to scientific indpendence to censoring of words that are politically incorrect to the Trump administration.
Suggesting that this is an optional high profile shut down of science rather than something completely in line with what's happening every single day is a very odd take on the matter.
And as to the proof that this is not something that people really care about in a high profile way, the science rallies get about 1/10th the support of other sorts of rallies in those trying to resist Trump's changes.
lurk2
The people relying on this data aren't even American constituents.
chasd00
Yeah what does “air quality data network” even mean? Do they have dedicated circuits between all the consulates and then some pop somewhere all for air quality sensors? If so, then it deserves to be shutdown because that would be grossly over engineered for the task. Imagine, an entire dedicated network and all the gear and lease expense that comes with it to read some sensors from a rest api.
rqtwteye
This is just nuts. Stuff like this is what made the US a leader. I bet next is to turn off GPS outside the US because no money. That's how you lose world leadership.
energy123
To the populist right, everything is zero-sum, all effects are first order, all effects are immediate, and all effects only impact the parties to a transaction.
Soft power doesn't exist. Iterated games don't exist. Long-term consequences don't exist. Externalities don't exist. Positive sum utility gains don't exist. Systemic effects don't exist. It's all too abstract and cognitively difficult, it's the business of the arrogant intelligentsia.
The problem for them is that reality isn't going to adjust to fit their worldview. The decline will eventually reach people's purchasing power. The laws of reality will catch up to them.
ainiriand
You have put into words exactly my thoughts on this topic.
globular-toast
I've said it before, it's like these guys turned up to study economics, learnt about free markets on day 1, then just went home.
jiggawatts
> The problem for them is that reality isn't going to adjust to fit their worldview.
The perpetual problem is that it will in the short term!
It’s just like the MBAs juicing profits by cutting R&D spending — this works every time!
It works, and it works long enough for a few to reap the benefits at the expense of the many.
This will play out over and over until we somehow magically achieve the Star Trek future utopia.
jauntywundrkind
In general, the principles of democracy are that the people of the nation can steer the nation towards a better place. To do so, people need access to information, need access to information on what the state of their nation and the state of the world is.
These acts that teardown the information that the US makes available, that help us shape our decision making & view of the world, are deeply horrifically un-democratic. To march us from a nation that advocates sunlight & democracy, back into the dark is horror.
bruce511
>> In general, the principles of democracy are that the people of the nation can steer the nation
Yes.
>> towards a better place.
Weeelll, where the population steer it to isn't really determined by any principles. Rather it goes wherever the population steers it to.
Sometimes the population gets it wrong, and with open eyes pick an option that takes them to a worse place.
Yes, information helps (hence campaigning) but that information has always been gate-kept. That was seen as a flaw.
Turns out though information is like water; you need enough, but too much and you drown.
Anti-vaxers don't exist because of a lack of information. People who voted for tarrifs don't have restricted information. People have shown over and over a willingness to vote against their own best interest, as long as you provide someone else to blame.
tuan
> Turns out though information is like water; you need enough, but too much and you drown.
How do we slow down or control the flow of information ? Genuine question. I'm just asking to see if there are any studies or proposals that already exist out there.
I've heard people talk about education. But this seems to be part of a long term solution. How can we solve this problem now so that in the next election (next 2 or 4 years) people will not vote against their own best interests ?
Convincing people to quit social medias or stopping listening to TV pundits ? So far that hasn't worked. Facebook/Tiktok just keeps growing.
mola
They exist because of justified lack of trust , and by people taking advantage advantage of that lack of trust.for their own benefit.
(Mis)Information is just the tool.
Being the world leader in everything was whatade the US great, these sort of data networks was part of what made it great.
What made it less great is the decimation of all industry except for PR,finance,services and software. Plus the fact corporates were allowed to buy politicians.
This caused all the wealth to be super concentrated.
The losers were gaslighted and completely lost trust in the system.
Now the vultures come to finish the job. Blaming transgenders and immigrants for all the problems.
keybored
The US does not live democratic principles. Not domestically and much less in interactions on the world stage.
brabel
Well, it's a good thing that the US stop acting like the world leader/police in everything. The US is just a country among many and it is about time it starts acting like that. And it's about time the "Western world" stops relying on the US for basic stuff like national defense.
More to the topic: why the hell are the US embassies reporting other countries' cities air quality? While it's a "nice" thing to do, it would be even nicer if those countries monitored that themselves. The fact that we think we need the US to do it because other countries tend to be dishonest about it is incredibly depressing.
DidYaWipe
Our "world leadership" is rapidly becoming a distant memory.
metalliqaz
it's already gone. as soon as we re-elected the felon, everyone knew they couldn't trust us
graeme
This is downvoted but for those outside the US it's actually true. Or more specifically once the new admin began acting erratically.
For instance, in Canada he has repudiated a trade agreement he himself negotiated in his first term and threatened repeatedly to annex us.
Americans who treat foreigners as abstractions shrug off that sort of thing and assume you can go back to normal but reliability is shot and trust is broken.
In term one the remaining vestiges of Republican and state apparatus ensured continuity on many fronts. That's all gone.
wraaath
they already knew they couldn't trust us after 2016, electing a known grifter clown.
epistasis
The elites of the country that are now in power don't care about world leadership, much less the soft power that we had that made us all very rich, that made a plumber in the US make $7k a month while in much of Europe that plumber would only make $3k a month.
They care about enriching themselves as much as possible. It's all short-term gain, without any view for the future. Get those tax cuts, reallocate money away from the government and away from those who work for a living and make a true oligarch class.
If events continue down this route, the US is looking at a lost decade or even permanent loss of leadership, letting China catch up and then step up, or maybe India.
bruce511
>> that made a plumber in the US make $7k a month while in much of Europe that plumber would only make $3k a month.
I'm not trying to derail the thread, but framing your point as "magnitude of salary" is meaningless and perhaps reflects one of the issues.
It's not the size of the salary that's important- it's the quality of life. Salary is one factor in the equation, but it's not the only factor.
For example, in the US the plumber pays for health care. In Europe he mostly does not.
There are a million things that go into a very subjective quality of live assessment. Salary is part of it, yes, but ultimately only a part.
And, if we're being honest, the US certainly acts the part of leader, it talks a good game, and everyone is happy to take their money. But is anyone actually following their lead?
pjerem
With huge respect, I’m an European SWE making a little more than 3k net (which means that what’s left after all taxes).
I own a nice house in a countryside village that I bought recently (so at the current market price), 10 min walking distance from the train station. I can afford premium quality food, I have enough money (and time !) to go on vacation 4 to 5 weeks per year (not just holidays but going abroad as a tourist). I own two cars. I’ll have a retirement.
Life hasn’t been cool on me on the last decade : I had to go under a 100+k surgery, I now take a treatment of about 150€/month. My grandmother had a stroke and is now living hospitalized under my dad’s roof. I did a burnout and stayed 1 year at home to recover. And you know what ? Everything of this had barely any impact on our finances. Everything health related : 0 impact.
Now everything is fine, my health is better, I still have strong savings, still own my house, my grandmother is greatly taken care of…
I would never exchange that for the extra 4k I could lose at any moment without notice because life.
epistasis
Quality of life is something that many people evaluate along very very different metrics at different weights. But losing that $7k and bringing it down to $3k does not look like it will be accompanied by plumbers no longer paying for healthcare out of pocket.
One measure of the lead of the US is how it is a destination for those looking to create great science, a great startup, build a business, or otherwise build a long-lasting contributor to our institutions. Europe, Japan, other places certainly rank highly here too, but the US is by far the biggest player and attracts the most people as far as I can tell.
9283409232
The view for the future is cutting the US into city-states that they control. They are just following the playbook of Curtis Yarvin.
hujun
nah, GPS is needed by US outside US as well, I bet someone will propose a 'great' idea to start charging for it
insane_dreamer
or they could replace it with Starlink (no conflict of interest, obviously), which can be used for global positioning
hello_moto
Makes the Krasnov theory even stronger... how the tide has turned in terms of Conspiracy Theory no?
evan_
don't give them any ideas.
ta988
They really found the most efficient way to reduce every dependency the rest of the world had on the US. When the US will finally wake up, there will be nothing left but countries ready to sell their better technology to the US and maybe not even sell it in dollars.
owenpalmer
> The stop in sharing data was “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network”
What is the actual recurring cost of broadcasting this data? The sensor and network infrastructure are presumably already established.
feverzsj
Sensors are very cheap. Have no idea why they cut them.
feverzsj
Good or bad, influence is the most powerful weapon of a superpower in peace time. Cutting it off won't save your money but instead weaken the country.
lunarboy
How does this reduce the fraud in the federal spending? How does this decrease inflation, and make america great again?
sixothree
[flagged]
teekert
Thank you US for providing us with air quality data for all those years!
Aeolun
In light of all recent news, this seems stupid, but almost banal in comparison to everything else.
bvan
Absolutely tragic. Trump is literally dragging the country back into the proverbial cave or dark ages. Just take NOAA for example: gutting this agency has widespread 2nd and 3rd order consequences the Trump administration is either clueless or willfully ignorant about. This administration is screwing over generations to come.
iamshs
Indian Government would be so relieved. US Embassy data was the most reliable one cited to highlight the pollution crises in Delhi, the nation's capital. Otherwise for their own sensors, they sometimes just sprayed them with artificial water showers to change climate around the sensors.
Highlighted in earlier reports and included in this APNews brief:
( earlier: https://phys.org/news/2025-03-embassies-pollution-popular-ch... + https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43265021 ) This is a low cost to gather and deliver data stream that has a profound effect on global air quality and improving health and well being for all.