"At least I'm trying to make changes," the netizen, who works in environmental protection, said. "All they've done is hide outside, and they feel morally superior?"
Many also started sharing articles on harm the smog may bring, as well as how to protect themselves.
In the past couple of months, a few events have erupted at the same time. Besides those demanding information on pollution, there were some attempting to educate others on the harm of the smog, attempting to give their fellow citizens a wake-up call.
Shen Kui, a law school professor at Peking University, filed an application to the national energy bureau and environmental protection authorities, asking for information on petroleum coke power plants and their connection to smog.
He read a post that has been circulating online and causing panic for days, claiming that these plants generate more pollution than coal-fired ones. Shen looked up the Peking University database and found a notice from the government last December that limits the development of such projects without explaining why.
Putting two and two together, Shen grew worried. However, he couldn't find more information, so he filed for an information disclosure request.
"There's no public channel to get the information I want to know," he told Caixin magazine.
Many are demanding better protection from the smog as well. A mother wrote a long open letter demanding Beijing schools install air filtration systems for the children.
Not enough?
Ignorance towards pollution still exists. From Internet discussions and news reports, it's easy to see people walking around without masks on in swampy pollution in smaller cities, even smog-shrouded provincial capitals such as Shijiazhuang.
But even a small segment of society demanding a government response and information disclosure is already an improvement.
Ma Jun, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a non-profit environmental protection organization based in Beijing, is supportive of these people's demands for accountability.
"There are precedents, both globally and domestically," he said, citing demonstrations in Western countries in the 1960s.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the nation's streets, parks, and auditoriums to protest against pollution, which had led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts by the end of that year.
The Chinese government's decision to start releasing PM2.5 data was also completed by public scrutiny, Ma said.
The public discussion of PM 2.5, particles - which can lodge themselves deeper in the lungs than most pollutants and are highly toxic - arose in early 2011 when the US embassy's smog figures were consistently gloomier than the official data.
In November that year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) formulated its air quality standards and added PM 2.5 limits in the regulation.
There's a fine line in China between acceptable displays of anger and protests and crossing a threshold. In Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a group of artists were detained for silently sitting in a square with masks on to protest the smog that had taken hold of the city.
But this time, the government response came rather quickly. Last week, the Beijing government announced that filtration equipment will be installed in all of Beijing's kindergartens and elementary schools to ensure clean air, though it didn't clarify whether they meant individual air purifiers or the larger air ventilation systems that parents demanded.
Over the weekend, the MEP and the National Meteorological Center held a press conference to address the public smog concerns.
The MEP minister Chen Jining on January 6 pledged to remove coal-fired boilers, raise industrial emission standards, punish violators, eliminate heavy polluting vehicles and prohibit bulk coal burning in Beijing and its surrounding areas.
The best way to combat air pollution is to be transparent, Ma believes. Even though the regulations say that local governments should publicize the biggest polluters in their area and make factories release their emissions data in real time, very few have done so, he added.
There's no going back to the time of making jokes and gently complaining about the smog now, an author wrote in the public account under the title "Why have I not run back to America in the smog."
She wrote that many want to enjoy a good consumer life, a heavily polluting life, but at the same time complain about the environment. Maybe it's time to start making personal changes, starting with each one of us.
"The solution to pollution will not come from complaining and fleeing, nor from government enforcement policies, but from technological advances and education."
