As part of the Geneva Lecture Series concepted and conducted by prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, former Finance Minister of Greece, Professor Yanis Varoufakis centered his two-hour mesmerizing discussion on the pressing need for new international financial institutions in light of… Read More ›
Shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed, Greenpeace opened an office in Moscow. It enjoyed the patronage of a leading member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and enjoyed Kremlin funding, laundered through a state-owned record company. The green activist group… Read More ›
In September, the Chinese province of Hubei – where the first outbreak of Covid-19 occurred – announced 90 billion yuan (about US$14 billion) of investment in the coal, electricity, oil and gas sectors over the next three years. Provincial bosses described… Read More ›
Environmental NGOs like Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, being dupes or worse, sing the praises of the world’s largest polluter. Two decades ago, most economists — including me — believed that as a country became… Read More ›
China has announced it is to ban plastic bags from major cities by 2021 and in all cities and towns by 2022. The nation, which is among the world’s largest users of plastic, also plans to stop restaurants giving out… Read More ›
China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is ready to massively boost its coal-powered energy supply with the total of future projects now standing at 226.2 gigawatts (GW). That is more than twice the amount of fresh capacity planned… Read More ›
Despite repeated claims of “green development,” President Xi tacitly admitted BRI’s first phase has been an environment failure. After the second Belt and Road Forum, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a list of deliverables that include many efforts… Read More ›
Below is a letter I have sent to my local paper. I sent a similar one to the Daily Mail. I don’t know if either will be published. Please feel free to use if you wish. Belief in a “climate… Read More ›
“… ‘It was like an earthquake,’ Arnaud Brunet, director general of Brussels-based industry group The Bureau of International Recycling, said…” reported by AFP on Jan 21, 2018. It was a response to China’s official ban of plastic waste import with… Read More ›
Kevin Kelly, co-founder and editor of the futuristic Wired magazine, “sees China playing a big role in our future” because, as reported by Forbes on March 19, “Kelly sees two cultural changes happening in China that are helping push the… Read More ›
Reuters reported on Dec 19 that China would be launching “a nationwide carbon emission trading scheme (ETS). The government outlined details of what is expected to be the world’s largest such program …… Trading will be based in Shanghai, involving… Read More ›
The growth of China’s middle class over the past 15 years or so has driven up demand for all sorts of luxury goods in the country. For example, there’s been a growing interest in high-quality seafood—which comes at a most… Read More ›
Any failure to tackle China’s huge pollution problems in the coming years could stoke public discontent and create “social conflicts,” government researchers warned, underlining political concerns driving Beijing’s war on smog. With pollution identified as a major source of unrest,… Read More ›
The average surface temperature in China has increased by 0.23°C (0.4°F) each decade of the last 65 years, said a Chinese government official—twice the average pace of warming everywhere else on the planet. This isn’t the first time the Chinese government… Read More ›
China‘s skyrocketing appetite for ivory is leading to the unsustainable slaughter of African elephants. As prices for precious ivory goods have surged in China, the number of poached elephants has also escalated. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, said… Read More ›
China‘s overgrown and smog-hit capital Beijing has passed new rules banning the expansion of polluting and resource-intensive industries, the local government said on Friday. In a list of restrictions published on its website (www.beijing.gov.cn), the municipal government said it would… Read More ›
A waterway in eastern China has mysteriously turned a blood red color. Residents in Zhejiang province said the river looked normal at 5 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday morning. Within an hour, the entire river turned crimson. Residents also said… Read More ›
China‘s capital city, Beijing, will enforce the use of cleaner low-sulphur coal from August 1st in a bid to tackle the soaring levels of air pollution that frequently clog the country’s major cities, the official Xinhua media agency said on… Read More ›
China‘s smog is making it harder for foreign firms to convince top executives to work in the country, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing said on Wednesday, offering some of the strongest evidence yet on how pollution is hurting… Read More ›
China must increase spending on emission cuts and clean technologies by 2 trillion yuan ($330 billion) to do its fair share to halt climate change, a report by Beijing’s Central University of Finance and Economics said. It urged the government… Read More ›
As China’s smog levels crept past record highs in early December, the phone lines at pollution-busting kit maker Broad Group lit up with Chinese customers worried about hazardous pollution levels that have gripped China this year. China’s government is struggling… Read More ›
Commentaries by two of China’s most influential news outlets suggesting that an ongoing air pollution crisis was not without a silver lining drew a withering reaction on Tuesday from internet users and other media. In online commentaries on Monday, state… Read More ›
Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled on Friday in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai as record levels of air pollution shrouded the city in smog, prompting authorities to issue the highest level of health warning. The incident is especially… Read More ›
A chronic shortage of natural gas is hurting China’s plan to move away from burning coal to heat homes and offices, raising the prospect of more choking air pollution this winter and beyond. The problem is worst in northern China,… Read More ›
Thick smog in Harbin urban areas has caused the closing of primary and secondary schools and expressways. The PM2.5 index has exceeded the maximum range of the metre. After the serious smog on October 20, and the early morning on… Read More ›
China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, but experts said implementing the bold targets would be a major challenge. China has been under… Read More ›
Thousands of dead fish have been found floating in a river in central China following a toxic spill, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of pollution scandals to hit the country’s water supplies. Xinhua said… Read More ›
Nearly 20 million people in China live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to a study published on Thursday. The Chinese government has labelled arsenic contamination, which it first diagnosed in China in the 1970s, as one… Read More ›
People with a poor aim are to be fined if they miss their mark when using public toilets in Shenzhen, officials said – provoking online derision over how the rule will be enforced. The penalty will apply to those who… Read More ›
China plans to invest 2.3 trillion yuan ($375 billion) in energy saving and emission-reduction projects in the five years through 2015 to clean up its environment, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a senior government official. The plan,… Read More ›
Australia has been drafted in to help design an emissions trading scheme for China, the world’s biggest polluter. A deal announced in Canberra on Thursday will see the Australian National University take leadership of a program that will analyse pollution… Read More ›
Air pollution causes people in northern China to live an average of 5.5 years shorter than their southern counterparts, according to a study released on Monday which claims to show in unprecedented detail the link between air pollution and life… Read More ›
The Chinese government has approved a set of regulations designed to protect the environment and improve the safety standards of food and water. The Middle Kingdom is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The National Council recommended,… Read More ›
It is well-known that when rolling out a new and significant policy, Chinese officials are extraordinary cautious. Those who expect radical shifts over night are always left disappointed. So it should come as no surprise that the latest development in… Read More ›
Laos is seeking help from the Chinese government to conduct detailed surveys of its mineral wealth, aiming to use the information to help regulate the mining industry. Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Somboun Rasasombath said as quoted in the… Read More ›
The article below by Fox News is a very insightful, albeit quick look, at the ongoing struggle for transparency and reform in China. The tone of the piece is focused on a key idea – If China’s government would be… Read More ›
As recently as 20 years ago, there were an estimated 50,000 rivers in China, each covering a flow area of at least 60 square miles. But now, according to China’s First National Census of Water, more than 28,000 of these rivers… Read More ›
Related government agencies and experts in Taiwan are currently conducting evaluations on whether to open an offshore island national park in the South China Sea for tourism and environmental education activities, the Marine National Park Headquarters (MNPH) said recently. “Experts are… Read More ›
Shanghai’s busy streets teem with Buicks, Fords, Volkswagens, and Toyotas. More than 9 out of 10 cars in the world’s most populous city are made by foreign companies, and it’s not just a reflection of mainlanders’ preference for Western design. Some local… Read More ›
The Philippine coast guard has found hundreds of frozen scaly anteaters, or pangolins, in the cargo hold of a Chinese boat that ran aground in a protected marine sanctuary last week. Wildlife officials have been informed of the surprising discovery,… Read More ›
An US government report on oil and gas reserves in the heavily disputed regions of the South China has concluded that there probably aren’t any. The study concludes for the first time that the countries expecting riches under the Spratly… Read More ›
It’s no secret that air pollution is a major problem in China. In fact, in recent years, the problem has gotten so bad that the Environmental Protection Agency, the environmental watchdog in the US, has had to revise its Air… Read More ›
When Beijing was choking on record levels of smog, observers wondered whether China would ever get its pollution problem under control. It’s an insanely difficult question, with huge implications from climate change to the global economy. Here’s one stab at an… Read More ›
China’s expanding investment portfolio in Cambodia has brought into sharper focus the darker side of the Asian giant’s “development projects” in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. And it is in the southwestern corner of Cambodia – known for its rich… Read More ›
Leery of product safety in China, Zhu Zhangjin is urging farmers to invest abroad like he has. Zhu Zhangjin calls himself a farmer, but he has little time or love for mainland farm goods. Nor is he afraid to speak… Read More ›
Millions of tonnes of untreated refuse from the countryside end up in rivers and lakes annually. Many were shocked when thousands of dead pigs were found floating on Shanghai’s Huangpu River this month, but animal carcasses are not the only… Read More ›
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged on Sunday that his government would “show even greater resolve” in tackling China’s festering pollution crisis, a source of increasing public fury. Li’s remarks at his debut press conference as premier were the highest-level public… Read More ›
Architects are often pushing the boundaries of the possible, often in response to challenges posed by the ongoing problems of urban sprawl, pollution, and overpopulation. And in China, where one-fifth of the world’s total population lives and urban population density… Read More ›
There are shortcomings in this process, but they seem to be significantly less than the conventional uranium process. It could hardly be otherwise, I suggest. Uranium reactors are devastatingly risky and have enormous and also dangerous waste disposal problems. The… Read More ›
China now has up to 400 “cancer villages,” and the government only just admitted it. China’s “growth at all costs” approach to development has meant industries can spew waste pretty much wherever they want. Drinking water sources? Sure. Farmland? Fine…. Read More ›
