China
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
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. 11/19
Dynamic Map or various issues.
Contents
Articles
Air
See main Air
China Ramps Up Coal Power Again, Despite Pressure to Cut Emissions 11/19.
Beijing Air Pollution Mystery Could Be Solved, Scientists Say 10/18.
Chinese City to Become World's First to Switch Entire Bus Fleet to Electric 12/17
Two billion children worldwide affected by air pollution, UNICEF study says A report released Monday said one in seven children lives in areas of high air pollution. see Air.
China Issues ‘Red Alert’ Over Devastating Air Pollution so 4,000 Bottles of Fresh Air Shipped to China, Company Struggling to Keep Up With Demand.
Real-Time Map Reveals China’s Deadly Air Pollution 9/15
Obama makes deal with China on carbon reduction. 11/14. Positive Update 6/15.
When China became the world’s workshop, it inherited the world’s air pollution, too (nice overview of air pollution) 5/14.
In Latest Step In Its ‘War On Smog’ Effort, China Says It Will Triple Solar Capacity By 2017 5/14.
Chinese smog visible from space. 12/13.
Study Links Mercury Levels In Fish To Coal-Fired Power Plants 9/13.
New air law 7/13.
Air pollution may be responsible for more than 2 million deaths around the world each year, according to a new study, linked with fine particulate matter, tiny particles that can get deep into the lungs and cause health problems. Shortens life in China by five years 7/13.
China warns it will execute serious polluters 6/13 also starts carbon trading. Indonesia to seed clouds, try to put out huge plantation fires
Beijing's 'Airpocalypse' Spurs Pollution Controls, Public Pressure 1/13.Update/analysis 3/13.
Almost half of all coal burned in the world is burned in China 1/13
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.
China Ramps Up Coal Power Again, Despite Pressure to Cut Emissions 11/19.
China's government announced plans for a major reforestation project. The country aims to grow about 6.66 million hectares of new forests this year, an area roughly the size of Ireland. 1/18.
Chinese City to Become World's First to Switch Entire Bus Fleet to Electric 12/17
China is helping Pakistan build the largest solar farm in the world. The Chinese company Xinjiang SunOasis took only three months to install a 100-Megawatt (MW), 400,000-panel pilot power project—marking the first solar power plant in Pakistan. 9/15.
Obama makes deal with China on carbon reduction. 11/14.
In Latest Step In Its ‘War On Smog’ Effort, China Says It Will Triple Solar Capacity By 2017 5/14.
China announces plan for a carbon tax 2/13.
14 "Carbon Bomb" Projects Will Increase Global Emissions. Greenpeace lists 14 planned fossil-fuel energy projects that, if allowed to proceed, will together increase global carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent, making it even harder to stay within the targeted maximum global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius set by the International Energy Agency. China and Australia are at the top of the list of countries housing these projects. 1/13.
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.
Water
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History by Sunil Amrith — Right now Asian nations are building hundreds of dams across the Himalayas, even as climate change threatens the region and the world. That makes this an important time to look to the past to see how humans and nature have clashed and coexisted.
Water Pollution in China is the Country’s Worst Environmental Issue 3/18
In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe: Nearly half the country has missed its five-year water quality targets, Greenpeace research shows – so what can be done about water pollution?
China says progress made on water pollution, but battle remains 6/18.
China’s Emerging Environmental Movement includes Ma Jun and Zhao Zhong, who is leading the fight to save the Yellow River.
Map. IPE blue map uses Citizen Science. IPE also links to companies who are polluters. Blue Map app.
Healthy oceans take center stage in China.
Can China fix its mammoth water crisis before it's too late? Huai River Henan 2017.
A Milestone in the Race to Save the Critically Endangered Yangtze Finless Porpoises 4/15. see Marine Mammals. China Acknowledges “Cancer Villages” 5/13. Activist Huo Daishan wins an award.
Hong Kong Risks Losing 'Pink Dolphins' Because Of China's Pollution, Conservationists Warn 5/13
220,000 Pounds Of Poisoned Dead Fish Scooped Up In China In Reminder Of Pollution Plaguing Country 9/13.
Other
China’s plastic waste import ban forcing US and Japan to rethink options.
China Reassigns 60,000 Soldiers to Plant Trees: a major reforestation project—growing 6.66 million hectares of new forests this year, an area roughly the size of Ireland, 2/18
What Does China’s 'Ecological Civilization' Mean for Humanity’s Future? 2/18.
A Milestone in the Race to Save the Critically Endangered Yangtze Finless Porpoises 4/15. see Marine Mammals.
China Suspends Ivory Imports, But African Elephants Still In Danger Of Extinction 3/15.
Chicken Imports from China a Raw Deal for U.S. Consumers 11/14 See Food Safety.
Food website tracks problems 9/14.
China Bulldozing Hundreds Of Mountains To Expand Cities 6/14.
Could a bullet train take you from the U.S. to China to Europe? 5/14.
Nearly 16 Percent Of China's Soil Is Polluted, Government Says 4/14.
Toxic Tech: Apple And Other Manufacturers Have to Stop Poisoning Their Workers see Heather White and Lynn Zhang’s new short-form documentary,Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Electronics link 4/14.
220,000 Pounds Of Poisoned Dead Fish Scooped Up In China In Reminder Of Pollution Plaguing Country 9/13.
6 Mind-Boggling Facts About Farms in China 8/13.
Life in a Toxic Country essay 8/13.
China's Uranium Plans Halted After Major Protest 7/13.
Nearly 300 Dead Or Missing As Rains, Typhoon Lash China.
The Chinese government is subjecting millions of Tibetans to a policy of mass rehousing and relocation that radically changes their way of life, and about which they have no say, Human Rights Watch said in a new report published today. 6/13. see Human Rights.
China Acknowledges “Cancer Villages” 5/13.
Hong Kong Risks Losing 'Pink Dolphins' Because Of China's Pollution, Conservationists Warn 5/13
Chinese forests now just chopstick factories in waiting/ See deforestation.
Snow Leopard Raw Footage: Endangered Species Caught On Camera In China (VIDEO).
Tiger Bone Wine Trade Reveals China's Two-Faced Approach To Conservancy (NSFW) 3/13.
Demographic shifts(aging) 3/12.
Global land grab, mostly by China, for food security, in the face of global warming.
Land grab by China and multinational corporations such as Monsanto and private equity funds (sometimes as tax dodge) may be the largest threat to food security. "Inefficient" small subsistence farmers (mostly women) become refugees and miners. Extensive research by Oakland Institute. 6/12 Michael T. Klare is author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy Overview. Land and water grabs in developing Third World countries 1/13. See also China's Second Continent book.
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.
People and NGO's
List of Chinese environmentalists. Another list from green Asia blog.
China’s Emerging Environmental Movement includes Ma Jun and Zhao Zhong, who is leading the fight to save the Yellow River.
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.
Citizen Science gathers its own samples for analysis.
The Global Environment Institute is a think-tank based in Beijing also does citizen science.
Lo Sze Ping, spoke at UCSC in 2016 on air issues; Mr. Lo is an environmentalist with over 20 years of experience in campaigning and advocacy. He served as the CEO of World Wildlife Fund, China, led the development of Greenpeace in China as Campaign Director, and is Executive Chairman of the Board of Friends of Nature, the first green NGO in China.
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.
2011 crackdown. Liang Congjie: The Godfather of China's Green Movement.
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
Toxic Tech: Apple And Other Manufacturers Have to Stop Poisoning Their Workers see Heather White and Lynn Zhang’s new short-form documentary, Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Electronics link.4/14.
By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World" by Elizabeth Economy; Michael Levi video interview) 2/14.
Food for 9 Billion: Satisfying China’s Growing Demand for Meat. See Food Scarcity.
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.
Bill McDonough is building twelve Ecotopian cities in China. Full TEDtalk. 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.
Websites
RMI Reinventing Fire on China 6/14.
Maps/Images
Real-Time Map Reveals China’s Deadly Air Pollution 9/15 see also Berkeley 11/19.
US Embassy air stats Beijing (11/19).
Audio
Orville Schell: The Rise of China (2/3/14).
Beijing Airpocalypse 2/13.
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
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History by Sunil Amrith — Right now Asian nations are building hundreds of dams across the Himalayas, even as climate change threatens the region and the world. That makes this an important time to look to the past to see how humans and nature have clashed and coexisted.
The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa Hardcover by Dayo Olopade. (review), audio interview.
China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa by Howard W. French (audio interview). see also Africa.
Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River: Nature and Power in the People's Republic of China 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.
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.
Land grab by China and multinational corporations such as Monsanto and private equity funds (sometimes as tax dodge) may be the largest threat to food security. "Inefficient" small subsistence farmers (mostly women) become refugees and miners. Extensive research by Oakland Institute. 6/12 Michael T. Klare is author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy Overview.see also Land grab by China and multinational corporations such as Monsanto and private equity funds (sometimes as tax dodge) may be the largest threat to food security. "Inefficient" small subsistence farmers (mostly women) become refugees and miners. Extensive research by Oakland Institute. 6/12
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
Michelle Olsgard received a 2008-2009 Fullbright Award to aid her research work in environmental studies. She will continue her research in Tibet, on Cordyceps sinensis, a rare fungus endemic to the region at altitudes of 3500-5000m. Michelle will employ ethnographic and ecological research methods to examine how harvesting practices in NW Yunnan interact with resource viability, and how its economic integration both influences, and is influenced by, local socio-environmental processes. Includes traditional medicine. 5/13.
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