China

See also Asia and India

The US and China, the two countries who produce and consume the most, especially in terms of Energy will largely determine our environmental future. The effects of our choices will probably be felt most and most immediately in Africa.

See also Globalization and Entrepreneurship

Consumption, as well as Labor,

Sustainability, and Population

and Third World Development

Mark Hertsgaard writes extensively on China in his excellent book Earth Odyssey see also Google book. This article is based on the book.

Pollution maps air and water.

Articles

Air

China Air Quality Standards: Two-Thirds Of Cities Failing 3/12 related.

Lead in air poisoning kids, parents fight back. 3/12

Air Quality 3/10.

China Air Quality Standards: Two-Thirds Of Cities Failing 3/12

Other

Demographic shifts(aging) 3/12.

Global land grab, mostly by China, for food security, in the face of global warming.

Michael T. Klare is author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy Overview.

Preliminary results from China's census reveal a population that is older, rapidly urbanizing, and growing more slowly, with a widening gap between male and female births. Those demographic changes, combined with comments Tuesday by President Hu Jintao, suggest the country's controversial one-child policy may be on its way out. Science Mag 4/11

China is build large numbers of dams, which could lead to conflict in the region. 4/11 The world's largest is is the Three Gorges Dam images also NPR story 2008 (text and audio).

China's new eco-city 1/11

Rare Earth minerals are vital to electronics. China plays a big role. 6/11.

Two more Tibetan women die in self-immolation protests against Chinese rule 3/12

Wind: Despite recent strides toward climate action, China is still the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and one of the biggest consumers of coal —and hence the archetypal global warming scapegoat. But on at least one count, a new study says, China is kicking America's butt, and probably will be for decades: wind energy. As of 2011, North America (predominated by the US) claimed 22 percent of the world's total wind power capacity, four points behind China, according to analysis released today by the Global Wind Energy Council. By 2015, China's lead could be up to eight percent over the US. And over the next two decades, the gap could widen even more.

People

List of Chinese environmentalists. Another list from green Asia blog.

2012 Goldman Award: After a career as a journalist, realizing that access to information was a prerequisite for public participation in pollution control, Ma Jun founded the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), where he organizes the monitoring and enforcement data from the Chinese government to make it available to the public through online air and water pollution maps.

Madame Jiaman JIN, Executive Director of China's Global Environmental Institute COP15 video

Wang Canfa, director of the Beijing-based Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims.

Wang Yongchen, a journalist with China National Radio, co-founded Green Earth Volunteers, one of China's first environmental NGOs.

Pigpenning Mindi's blog, who is "currently dissertating on the Chinese pig industry while living in Sichuan Province. I write about pigs, agriculture, development, politics, agribusiness, and my experiences in the Middle Kingdom."

Video

Street protests are a daily occurence, often with social justice and environmental roots.

China's 'Mountain-Moving Project' flattens 700 mountains Near Lanzhou Aims To Flatten Territory For Development (VIDEO)

China's meat consumption increases 11/12 video.

Lixin Fan's film The Last Train Home is about Chinese migrant labor. (Trailer) (try to ignore the really exploitative ad).

China tries to combat pollution, while keeping up with its phenomenal industrial growth. 4/11.

Up the Yangtze explores lives transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, a hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. Nearing completion, China's massive Three Gorges Dam is altering the landscape and the lives of people living along the fabled Yangtze River. Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods.

Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall The world's largest shopping mall, in Guangzhou, China, is almost entirely empty. POV PBS

Photographer Edward Burtynsky documents how humans alter the world, and to a lesser degree the people engaged in doing the work [1]. A video, Manufactured Landscapes, (trailer) was made about his trip to China and its factories and the Three Gorges Dam. Excerpt from Manufactured Landscapes.

Design: e2 - China: From Red to Green. The series moves to China, whose soaring population and rapid industrialization have created a boom in urbanization that is unprecedented in human history. In an attempt to tackle this global issue, the episode explores design solutions in both theory and practice, including Steven Holl’s Linked Hybrid Project, which when completed will be the largest residential, geothermal heating/cooling and greywater recycling system in the world. Also featured is architect, designer and winner of three U.S. Presidential Awards William McDonough. Recognized by Time magazine as “Hero of the Planet,” McDonough talks about his innovative plans to make China an entirely sustainable country and how it will demonstrate the ways architecture can be both profitable and environmentally intelligent. also on hulu

Great Wall Across the Yangtze. To China’s leaders, the Three Gorges Dam is the most significant engineering feat since the construction of the Great Wall, but to its critics worldwide, it is a social and environmental disaster. As the debate rages on, GREAT WALL ACROSS THE YANGTZE tells the complex story of extraordinary sacrifice in the face of modernization.

Economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of "When China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become. TEDtalk 10/10 Other TEDtalks on China see also Parag Khanna's talk.

Audio

Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory 1.6.12 Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out. From NPR's This American Life. UPDATE: some of this was made up. On the other hand, subsequently worse conditions than he reported found.

Books

Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River: Nature and Power in the People's Republic of ChinaR. Edward Grumbine is the author of Ghost Bears (Island Press, 1992). He teaches environmental studies at Prescott College and directed the Sierra Institute, University of California Extension, Santa Cruz, for more than a decade.

China's environment and the challenge of sustainable development Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, c2005 McH Stacks - HC430.E5 C43 2005 Online

Mark Hertsgaard in his "The Green Dream" gives an overview of Earth Odyssey and gives idea on how market forces could help the environment. Chapter 6 on population. The book has several chapters on China, often on air quality. He points out that the government understands that environmental degradation is neutralizing economic gains.

UCSC Research

R. Edward Grumbine is the author of Ghost Bears (Island Press, 1992). He teaches environmental studies at Prescott College and directed the Sierra Institute, University of California Extension, Santa Cruz, for more than a decade. He has written a new book on China, Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River