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China and the world discuss the environment



On shaky ground (Sep 3)
The devastating mudslide in Zhouqu last month was far from a one-off, write Lu Zongshu and Tang Jing. Millions in China are threatened by geological disaster – and they need protection.On August 7, a huge mudslide struck Zhouqu, in Gansu, western China. By August 16, more than 1,200 people had been declared dead and 490 were still missing. According to Xinhua news agency, this was the worst landslide in Zhouqu since records began, and possibly the worst in China for 60 years. Zhouqu is one of China’s landslide hotspots. In recent decades, it has experienced many such disasters. Official records show that one of the areas worst affected this summer – Sanyanyugou – was also hit by mudslides in 1978, 1989 and 1992. These events destroyed or damaged 842 buildings and killed or injured 196 people.  Last month’s mudslide happened at 10pm, following two hours of torrential rain. According to the meteorological authorities, 90 millimetres of water had fallen – a historical record. But it se...


Anger over “frontier oil” (Sep 2)
Far from the Gulf of Mexico, environmental campaigners are accusing energy companies of destroying land and livelihoods in the search for increasingly scarce resources. Richard Wachman and Jon Stibbs report.The eyes of the world are on BP after the April disaster that left massive amounts of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. But campaigners accuse Big Oil of an appalling track record elsewhere in the world, saying it leaves a trail of devastation in its wake. From Nigeria to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and Colombia and Ecuador in South America, the oil majors stand accused of a blatant disregard for local communities and the environments in which they operate. With demand for energy expected to surge as industrialisation accelerates in China, India and Brazil, critics say oil companies are taking ever-increasing risks to cash in on yet another bonanza. Two other factors ensure the dash for oil continues apace. One is growing concern in the developed world that, at some point in t...


Muddy waters (Sep 1)
A project to flush sediment from the Yellow River has been hailed as a technological and environmental triumph. But, writes Meng Si, local communities are at risk.At four in the morning one day in early July, 31 villagers living on the banks of the Yellow River in Jiaozuo county, central China, woke to find themselves trapped by rapidly rising waters. They made it to safety, but only after a major rescue effort. This was an artificially-created “flood”, designed to clear silt from China’s second longest waterway. And, once again, it drew public attention to Yellow River regulation projects. Under the Yellow River’s management system, water levels are adjusted at five reservoirs on the river and its tributaries – at Wanjiazhai, Sanmenxia, Xiaolangdi, Guxian and Luhun. When the reservoir gates are opened, the fast-flowing water picks up silt and carries it downstream, clearing the water course and removing sediment from the reservoir. On the morning of June 19, the Yellow River Flood...


Testing time for green California (Aug 31)
As governor Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves office in November, state residents will be asked to vote on a ballot measure that could kill their landmark climate bill. Jan McGirk reports.Post Copenhagen, support for carbon trading has been falling globally. Now it appears that even California, famed for its environmental trend-setting, is losing its enthusiasm.  Bucking the trend is China, which reportedly will launch domestic carbon-trading programmes during the next Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) to meet its carbon-intensity target by 2020. As governor Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves office in November – having served the maximum term permitted by law -- Californians will be asked to vote on Proposition 23. If approved, this ballot initiative would stall, if not kill, the landmark climate-solutions bill on which the outgoing governor has staked his political reputation as a business-friendly environmentalist.

Two Texas oil companies are behind this latest bid to roll back California’...


“China’s interests must come first” (Aug 27)
Until recently, Yu Qingtai was Beijing’s top climate negotiator. In a speech earlier this month, Yu argued that the developing world must continue to resist unfair demands from rich countries. Here, chinadialogue publishes a summary of his remarks.On August 6, Yu Qingtai – until recently China’s special representative for climate change negotiations – made a speech at Peking University’s School of International Studies, in which he discussed the history and future prospects of climate-change negotiations. According to Yu, China played a decisive role at December’s global-warming summit in Copenhagen. He also said that, as all are born equal, China cannot commit to doing more than its historical responsibilities require and, during negotiations, it must put its own national interests first. This is a summary of his speech.
At the United Nations climate-change conference in Bali in 2007, a series of resolutions – collectively known as the Bali Roadmap – launched a two year negotiatio...


Invisible heroes of Dharavi (Aug 26)
In the chaos of Mumbai’s best-known slum, thousands of recyclers process the megacity’s garbage and provide an invaluable environmental service. But the health and social costs are high, writes Anna da Costa.“It’s funny how we popularise our movie stars,” said Vinod Shetty, director of the Acorn Foundation, when we met in his crowded office in Mumbai. “There are so many other people we should popularise for the work that they do, but instead, they are invisible and expendable.” This experienced advocate was referring to the work of the thousands of recyclers who reside in the city’s largest slum, Dharavi, and whose rights he spends much of his time promoting. Although the BAFTA award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire did a lot to highlight the plight of Mumbai’s slum-dwellers, Shetty believes it overlooked a story of true heroism in this infamous quarter; one that forms part of the day-to-day reality for its residents, and for millions of others across India. Dharavi, which has more...


Why Chinese firms don’t apologise (Aug 25)
Unlike BP, China’s state-owned polluters have been allowed by friends in government to ignore the consequences of their actions, writes Tang Hao.There is more than one BP in this world. On July 3, toxic waste from a Zijin Mining copper plant spilled into the Ting River in Fujian, south-east China, killing thousands of fish. On July 16, an explosion at an oil depot in Dalian, sent 1,500 tonnes of crude oil flowing into the sea off the north-east coast. On July 28, floods at Yongji in Jilin province swept 7,138 barrels of chemicals from two chemical plants into the Songhua River. But China’s companies do not handle responsibility in the same way as their overseas counterparts. To date, BP has spent billions of dollars plugging the Gulf of Mexico leak and dealing with the spilled oil. It will also cover government clean-up bills, running to hundreds of millions of dollars, and it has been forced to establish a US$20 billion (136 billion yuan) compensation fund. In contrast, Zijin only ...


Demystifying nuclear power (Aug 24)
Zhou Shirong is deputy director of nuclear safety at China’s environmental protection ministry. Here, he talks to Cao Haidong and Meng Dengke about managing construction standards – and public anxiety.This article was originally published by Southern Weekend on July 1, 2010. Southern Weekend: The recent incident at the Daya Bay power plant involving slight damage to a fuel rod reignited public fears over nuclear power. What does Ministry of Environmental Protection monitoring tell us about the operation of China’s nuclear power plants? Zhou Shirong: Currently China has six commercial nuclear power plants (Daya Bay, Ling Ao, the three at Taishan and Tianwan) with a total of 11 reactors. Using the International Atomic Energy Agency’s classification of nuclear incidents, none of these – from the start of construction to current operations – has had an incident at level two or above. That scale has seven levels, with a level zero – an incident with no safety implications – below that. ...


Panic stations (Aug 23)
As China pushes ahead with its ambitious nuclear programme, public safety fears are growing. Education, open information and citizen engagement are all essential for improving trust, writes Meng Dengke.In mid-June, Hong Kong media reported that the Daya Bay nuclear-power station in Shenzhen, south China, had suffered “its worst ever radiation leak, seriously threatening the lives of nearby residents”. With the plant located only 45 kilometres from the peninsula, the news created panic in Hong Kong as well as the mainland. The Daya Bay plant was China’s first commercial nuclear-power station. Construction started in 1987 and the plant began operating in 1994. The electricity generated there is mainly piped to Hong Kong and Guangdong.  Two days after the reports appeared, the National Nuclear Safety Administration, together with plant owner China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC), issued a statement on the incident: a tiny crack had appeared in the casing of a fuel rod in the Unit...


Battle of the solar systems (Aug 20)
China is preparing for a solar-thermal revolution, but not everyone is convinced the technology – or the country – is ready. Feng Jie and Chen Zhou report.Europe’s vision of a giant solar-thermal plant in the Sahara Desert, meeting up to 15% of the continent’s electricity needs, is frequently dismissed as outlandish fantasy. But China is gearing up to attempt to make a similar dream come true. Following a series of delays and setbacks, plans to build a solar-thermal plant in Ordos, Inner Mongolia – and mark the start of a new era for the technology in China – are moving forward. It looks like the two forms of solar power, thermal and photovoltaic, are set to compete on the same stage. In broad terms, photovoltaic technology uses solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity, while solar-thermal systems concentrate sunlight using mirrors or lenses in order to produce steam and drive power-generating turbines. The moment the Ordos project was announced, Yao Zhihao, assistant to th...