Chinese Environmental News

Water, water, not everywhere
Polluting a reservoir in the interests of great television
May 8, 2009 (WiC 14)

Could a battle between the forces of Zhuge Liang and Cao Cao in 209 AD really cause a present day environmental disaster? It seems that it could. The disaster site was the Yangxi Reservoir in Zhejiang province, which was used by a TV crew to ...

Come to Tangshan
A bucolic wetland where the fish taste of diesel
Apr 30, 2009 (WiC 13)

Isn’t prevention supposed to be better than cure? A case can be argued as far as hangovers are concerned, even if abstinence makes for rather a dull existence. But what about ‘the morning after’ in ecological terms – and how is China ...

Beijing’s car go plan
More draconian than a Ken Livingstone congestion scheme, but it works
Apr 9, 2009 (WiC 10)

Car sales, decimated across much of the world, are still holding up reasonably well in China. Sales growth has slowed a little but is expected to recover once the global economy starts to show more signs of life. But the country is now ...

Sands of time
The clock is running on China’s desertification
Apr 3, 2009 (WiC 9)

Most of us like sand; but usually on a beach on holiday, and not blown in our faces when we are travelling to work. Beijing had its first sandstorm of 2009 last month, and it won’t be its last. With the capital city only 250km from desert, ...

Titanic choices
Growth versus the environment
Mar 20, 2009 (WiC 7)

It would be a rare person to stand on the deck of the Titanic and worry about the rainforests. When the ship’s going down, the concern is with more immediate practicalities (lifeboats, for instance) than longer term preoccupations with carbon ...

Waste not, want not
China’s powerful new approach to trash
Mar 6, 2009 (WiC 5)

Discussions of China’s ‘rubbish’ are normally the domain of indignant American politicians complaining about the nation’s unsafe products – such as poisonous dogfood and toys coated in toxic paint. But this article is genuinely about ...

The acid test
America may have toxic assets. China has toxic water
Feb 27, 2009 (WiC 4)

A drought in eight provinces was bad enough (see WiC3), but a manmade water disaster in Jiangsu province is now grabbing the headlines too. Residents of the coastal city of Yancheng were left waterless last weekend when a toxic chemical spill ...

In need of water
The recent drought points to serious water problems
Feb 13, 2009 (WiC 2)

According to Chinese numerology, ‘eight’ is associated with ‘wealth’. But wealth is the last thing that farmers are expecting in the eight Chinese provinces currently dealing with drought. How serious is the ...

Beijing’s bus boom
Chinese cities are making big investments in environmentally-friendly buses
Feb 13, 2009 (WiC 2)

You wait for an environmentally-friendly bus and then three come along at once. Go to any major Chinese city and you are likely to see buses that boast pure electric locomotion, a fuel cell, or some form of energy-saving hybrid approach. In ...

Taking a bath
Dark comes before the dawn for China’s solar industry
Feb 6, 2009 (WiC 1)

When the sun goes down, I take my rest” is one of the Middle Kingdom’s more self-righteous proverbs. For Zhao Chunjiang there is always the option of adding a decent soak in a tub of solar-heated bathwater. Zhao, the departmental director of ...

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