photo by Nika (nika2 on Flickr Creative Commons)

When I lived in the US we separated our newspapers, cans and some plastic bottles and put them into a container to be collected by a truck once a week. In Sweden we divided glass (both dark and light), metal, plastic, paper, batteries and light bulbs in a special structure in front of my apartment building. In Ireland we just chucked everything into a big tip to be sorted through at a processing plant and then sold to the UK, which also has its own methods of recycling.

Below are two separate video reports by Al Jazeera English on two very different systems of recycling – though in some ways they are not so different from each other, it turns out. One in Cairo, Egypt and focuses on local waste, the other is in China, where a huge recycling industry imports trash and turns it into cash.

Cairo’s proficient recyclers

Cairo has one of the most efficient garbage recycling systems in the world, and that’s due to the community of garbage collectors known as the Zebbaleen.

China recycling world’s junk

It is the world’s biggest importer of waste, taking in plastics from the US, for example, before transforming them into new products to be shipped back to Western countries.

Graham Land

photo by El_Enigma (Flickr Creative Commons)

It was only three months ago that southern China was suffering from its worst drought in living memory. Now the heaviest rains in over a decade are causing floods, mudslides and other destruction there, as well as threatening the integrity of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Hubei province.

According to a BBC report, Chinese authorities have stated that the recent flooding left 823 people dead and 437 missing, the latest count including 37 deaths after a bridge collapsed in Henan province and a further 21 who are feared dead due to mudslides in Sichuan province.

From a separate BBC report:

Recent bad weather has killed 1,250 people in China, government officials say. The economic losses across the country are estimated to be more than $22bn (£14bn).

The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric project, but its recent water flow has reached just 10% under the dam’s maximum capacity.

From an Associated Press report:

Thousands of workers sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in Wuhan city in central Hubei province in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze water resources commission said. “Right now the Han river in Hubei province is on the verge of breaching warning levels,” said the official, who gave his name as Zhang.

China’s monsoon rains usually slow in August, but whether this turns out to be the case this year is impossible to accurately predict.

Graham Land

photo by Luther Blisset (Karen Eliot on Flickr Creative Commons)

Cap and trade or emissions trading schemes can be confusing. They have been touted as the chief market-based solution for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, preserving valuable natural resources like forests, while making money for rich and poor countries alike.

The far right and climate change skeptics hate them for obvious – and sometimes less obvious – reasons: they hate government meddling in the free market and regulating business and industry to the point that they believe in a vast ‘socialist’ conspiracy involving all prominent climate scientists. Or is it just a simple question of which class and which industries will make less money and pay more taxes and which are getting subsidies rather that the fact that subsidies exist at all?

But carbon trading schemes have also come under fire from serious environmentalists and those in favor of social justice, who are skeptical of their efficacy or about who ultimately profits from such emissions markets.

In the run-up to Copenhagen, Naomi Klein made her point against carbon trading quite clearly in an article penned for The Nation:

Climate-justice activists in Copenhagen will argue that, far from solving the climate crisis, carbon-trading represents an unprecedented privatization of the atmosphere, and that offsets and sinks threaten to become a resource grab of colonial proportions. Not only will these “market-based solutions” fail to solve the climate crisis, but this failure will dramatically deepen poverty and inequality, because the poorest and most vulnerable people are the primary victims of climate change—as well as the primary guinea pigs for these emissions-trading schemes.

Well, to the mixed satisfaction of all, cap and trade is waxing and waning in different parts of the world. The Obama-backed climate bill recently got shot down in the US Congress and there are doubts that any comprehensive carbon trading scheme will emerge in that country any time soon. China, on the other hand, is set to begin domestic carbon trading plans next year.

Europe already has the ECX (European Climate Exchange) whose website recently got hacked by some eco cyberwarriors called Decodcidio, part of the more direct-action oriented environmentalist group Earth First.

From a report in the Guardian:

Explaining the “carbon trade scam”, the spoof site decried how the EU’s flagship environmental policy is “susceptible to corporate lobbying,” offers industry “licences to pollute so they can continue business-as-usual,” and “generates outrageous profits for big industry polluters, investors in fraudulent offset projects [and] opportunist traders.”

You can view the spoof page here, which includes an embedded video of Annie Leonard’s ‘The Story of Cap and Trade’, which is alone worth a quick visit.

Graham Land

Additional resources:

Thomas Friedman – The news is we will regret messing with Mother Nature

Sandbag – China to introduce carbon market for power sector by 2011?

photo by Andrew Barclay (electropod on Flickr Creative Commons)

Despite the recent economic downturn, the green energy market has grown to the point of eclipsing fossil fuel – at least in terms of the creation of new power capacity in Europe and the United States.

In 2009 renewables accounted for over 50% of new power capacity in the US and 60% in the Europe. Green power also grew globally.

From an article in Red Herring magazine:

Nearly 80 GW of renewable power capacity was added globally, including 31 GW of hydro and 48 GW of non-hydro capacity. Wind power and solar PV additions totaled a record high of 38 GW and 7 GW, mostly due to a large drop in the costs of solar PV. This decline was offset by high investments in smaller scale solar installments. Wind energy was a strong investment.

This information comes from a report by The United Nations Environment Program and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century.

Though global investment in renewable power sources fell by $11bn from 2008, installation increased. Wind and biomass investment actually increased, while biofuel and solar went down. Overall investment soared in Asia by $10bn, swelling in China by a whopping 53%.

From a CNN report:

According to the U.N., wind power received record investment in 2009 — $67 billion in 2009 compared with $59 billion in 2008 — with a total of 38 GW of new energy installed worldwide.

Wind power is experiencing huge growth in China and the UK’s North Sea.

Graham Land

photo by greenpeacefrance (Flickr Creative Commons)

Here are two video reports on the oil spill cleanup efforts in China’s Yellow Sea.

Two oil pipelines exploded on the 16th of this month in the major port city of Dalian in northern China, resulting in a massive fire and the largest oil spill in Chinese history.

The pipelines have now been repaired, but the environmental damage of the spill will be felt for years to come. The oil has polluted an area of 430 sq km.

The first video is a report from Al Jazeera English on cleanup efforts in the Yellow sea around Dalian; the other is raw footage of the spill and cleanup from Russia Today.

Al Jazeera English – China battles Yellow Sea oil spill

Russia Today – China Oil Spill disaster spreads wide after pipeline blast

Graham Land

photo from Greenpeace UK (Flickr Creative Commons)

Friday’s oil pipeline explosion in the northern Chinese port of Dalian has resulted in a large oil slick in the Yellow Sea. The oil leaking from the two exploded pipelines has been stopped, but not before oil washed up on the coastline, soiling surrounding beaches and negatively impacting local wildlife and economic activity.

Thousands of firefighters, engineers and even a flotilla of 800 fishing boats are involved in cleanup operations which have already reduced the oil slick by a third from its peak of 50 sq km, according to a report in the Guardian.

The leak is likely to add to persistent calls for tighter environmental regulation in China. The need for improved standards was also highlighted by a toxic spill from a copper mine in Fujian month that poisoned a major river, killed countless fish and threatened the drinking supplies of downstream communities.

–Guardian

A BBC News report on the situation in the Dalian area paints a grimmer picture, stating that an area of 430 sq km is polluted from the spill and that annual fishing in the region may be ruined this year.

Though the spill is small when compared to the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Greenpeace, it is China’s worst in recent memory.

One firefighter lost his life during cleanup efforts.

For more on the story see the following report by the Associated Press:

AP – Growing China oil spill threatens sea life, water

Graham Land

Additional resources:

Guardian – In pictures: China tries to stop Yellow Sea oil slick

Greenpeace China – Greenpeace expresses condolences to sacrificed Dalian firefighter

photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video (Flickr Creative Commons)

Tropical storm Conson, aka typhoon Basyang, is currently battering southern China after heavy rains and flooding have already punished the country for weeks.

The economic damage from China’s recent weather woes totals in billions of dollars, while evacuations in the affected areas have been widespread.

From an Al Jazeera English report/video:

Swollen rivers and landslides have already killed 135 people across the country since the start of July. More than 35 million people have had their lives disrupted by the floods and landslides, and more than a million people have been displaced.

The Philippines also suffered heavy damage from Conson/Basyang, including 65 deaths, damage to infrastructure and losses in the agricultural and fishing industries, according to a report in the Manila Bulletin.

A pipeline in Cavite province, Philippines was also damaged during the typhoon, resulting in an oil leak, according to an ABS-CBN News report.

For more on the storms and flooding in China watch the following ITN video report:

China floods cause chaos

Graham Land

photo by saucy_pan (Flickr Creative Commons)

A 15-hour fire raged from Friday night into Saturday after an oil pipeline explosion at a busy port in Dalian, China.

It is not known what caused the pipeline – owned by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. – to explode at the port, but the fire started after a large oil tanker unloaded its cargo. Though the fire has been put out, Chinese environmental protection officials warned that the area is still unsafe due to airborne chemicals.

From an Associated Press report:

State-run media said the pipeline blew up Friday evening and more than 2,000 firefighters worked overnight to control flames and further blasts on a second pipeline

China National Petroleum Corp. is Asia’s largest gas and oil company.

For more on the story including video footage of the fire, see the following BBC News report:

China oil pipelines burn for 15 hours after explosion

Graham Land

photo by Philip (\!/_PeacePlusOne on Flickr Creative Commons)

According to China’s Civil Affairs Ministry, rainstorms and floods have left at least 118 people dead and a further 47 missing in southern China this month.

Damage from the flooding includes the destruction of some 101,000 houses, the relocation of 1.1 million people and an estimated financial toll of around $3.3bn (€2.6bn).

From a xinhuanet.com report:

By 4 p.m. Wednesday, more than 32.3 million people in 10 southern provinces and Chongqing Municipality had been affected by continuous rainstorms and floods, the ministry said.

Euronews reports that Japan’s northern Kyushu and Chugoku regions have experienced severe flooding, resulting 85,000 evacuation orders. More heavy rains are being forecasted for the regions.

The Philippines was also hit by extreme weather in the form of Typhoon Conson, the first typhoon of this year’s season, which struck the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday. The powerful tropical storm ripped through northeast Quezon and the central island of Luzon before battering the capital, Manila.

At least 22 people in the Philippines are dead as a result of Typhoon Conson and millions are stuck without electricity.

From a BBC News report:

Twelve people were reported injured and 57 are thought to be missing after the storm which had winds of 120km/h (75mph).

The typhoon is expected to hit Macau and China’s mainland later in the week.

Graham Land

Additional resources:

AFP – Typhoon pounds Philippines

Linfen, China; photo by sheilaz413 (Flickr Creative Commons)

When I was a little kid in the 1970s, my brother had a poster on his wall depicting an artist’s renderings of three possible future environments with the headline, ‘Which future would you choose?’

One showed a future in which man had chosen to live in harmony with nature and developed eco-friendly technology. A thriving green landscape dotted with white globes and pods while happy future-people tended vegetable gardens in the fresh air and had scintillating conversations about what great choices their predecessors had made. Ahhh…

The second was a highly urbanized future featuring a glowing red sunset that backlit a shiny metropolis with people walking though tubes and bullet trains zipping above canals filled with unsavory-looking water. Humanity had clearly chosen industry and economic growth over nature. It was a future in which happiness and comfort relied on technology rather than the natural world. Admittedly, it looked pretty cool.

The third option was a darkened, smog-choked nightmare where a few red lights shone through the blackness, barely illuminating a lifeless industrial wasteland. Both nature and humanity had been sacrificed on the altar of industry. I could only imagine what twisted wretches toiled inside those blackened factory walls. If anyone has driven north up the I95 to New York City at nighttime, you can pretty much imagine what the world in the picture looks – and smells – like.

I’ve always remembered this poster, provided to my brother via the Maryland public school system, and I still consider its message both relevant and prescient. The debate, of course, is between the first two options, with the third being the logical failure of the second. Though most industries and governments would probably claim that they are pursuing the first, environmentally friendly option, they are obviously headed down the road of the second, possibly or indeed eventually ending up with the ecocide of the third.

In 2010 we’ve sort of achieved examples of each of the three possible futures. If this poster were to be made today and concerned cities of the present, how would it look?

‘Which would you choose: Linfen, China; Malmö, Sweden or inside an eco-pod somewhere in the Costa Rican rainforest?’

Graham Land

Additional resources:

Time Magazine – The World’s Most Polluted Places

Grist – 15 Green Cities

SF Site book review – Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias

Image Source: Flickr.

Heavy rains continue to fall in southern China, raising the death toll to 377 and it’s not likely to stop there. At least 142 people are still missing and more rain is still expected.

Thus far, the flooding has caused nearly $11 billion in damages, forced the evacuation of 4.4 million people, and collapsed 368,000 homes.

Although floods happen yearly in China, this year’s have been particularly heavy, spanning across 10 provinces and regions in the southeast, and it all comes right after a terrible drought season.

Rescue workers and soldiers are currently transporting stones and sandbags to block and redirect water flow of the Fuhe river, which has at least 2 breaches

Image Source: Flickr. By: Politizer.

At least 35 rivers have risen past their warning marks and pose a threat to surrounding cities and farmland. Many bridges and roads are washed out or blocked—including 11 major state highways, and hundreds of rescue boats are being used to help evacuate those stranded by the floods. Even soldiers and armed police have been sent to help with the rescue work. Premier Wen Jiabao stated:

“In the coming days, another round of heavy rain will hit areas in the south. We are facing a bigger test, so we need to make better preparations to avoid disaster.” … “We are in a crucial period. We must be fully prepared and step up organization of disaster response work.”

In addition to the road and bridge damage: 393,000 homes are damaged, 144,000 homes have collapsed, 3.3 million acres of crops have been affected, electricity was lost in a number of areas, and thus far the whole situation has resulted in $4.3 billion (29.6 billion yuan) in economic losses.

More than 25 million people have been affected by the ongoing storm, including those stranded in other cities due to the road damages. Unfortunately, the rain is expected to continue for at least an additional 10 days.

Further updates will be posted as they happen.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Screen capture from Xinhua.

The Asian nation has been pounded by torrential rains since June 13th, causing major rivers to overflow and affecting over 10 million people. Many are injured, stranded, or have suffered property damages; plus an additional 86 people are missing, which means the death toll will most likely rise.

In addition to the China flood, Bangladesh and Myanmar were also recently hit by landslides and flooding.

Triggered by monsoon rains, over 100 people were killed by Nature’s wrath. Bridges were washed out, houses collapsed from the landslides, and rescue workers are still trying to pull more people out of the wreckage.

Updates will be posted as they happen.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr. By: Ryry9379.

Flooding has swept away many homes and lives in China recently. However, it may surprise you to learn that the biggest threat is a lack of water, not the rising of it.

Thousands of Tibetans face possible drought as a result of Global Warming and environmental degradation. It’s a rather devastating domino effect in the works at this point: melting glaciers and permafrost are causing the erosion of grasslands and wetlands, which in turn are posing a threat to the water sources of the Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow Rivers.

Government scientist, Xin Yuanhong, who led an important survey of the Yangtze source region, warned that the impending water shortage could also lead to a food shortage on a massive regional scale. Yuanhong explained that:

“We expect that under current conditions, up to 30% of the glaciers in this region could disappear within 10 years. If global warming worsens, the glaciers will melt faster and the situation will worsen.” … “As the permafrost melts, the land loses its capacity to absorb water. As more water runs off, there is more erosion, while the drier conditions allow for a rise in the rodent population, which further decimates the soil.”

The Qinghai-Tibet plateau region is actually responsible for almost half of the Yellow River’s water volume, 25% of the Yangtze’s, and 15% of the Mekong’s. On top of that, nearly 580 million people live in the rivers’ basins and all 3 areas have already been hit by drought and a decline in water levels this year.

To find out more about this issue, check out this article.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr.

China can’t seem to get a break from flooding this year.

Torrential rains tore through China’s southwestern Guangxi region between May 31st and June 2nd, causing flooding and landslides that killed at least 53 people. Rescue workers found about 20 bodies during the aftermath and unfortunately, findings included children.

Three children, aged between 8 and 11, met their fate when they were walking home from school. They were reported missing since June 1st and it would seem they were swept away by the flood as they were heading (unaccompanied) to their grandparents’ house.

On top of the death toll, at least 11,000 homes, 15 reservoirs, and thousands of irrigation networks were destroyed, plus 200,000 people had to be evacuated. To make matters worse, more heavy rain is expected in the region this week.

Updates will be posted as they happen.

By Heidi Marshall

photo by Patrick Gijsbers (source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Chinese government is adopting an incentives scheme to preserve the Asian giant’s fragile forests and biodiversity. According to the new legislation, wealthy urbanized regions in China will be obliged to compensate areas that preserve their natural riches, notably forests that sequester carbon.

This figure – which takes into account carbon sequestration, water conservation, biodiversity protection and biomass production – suggests the administration is seeking not just a new set of values, but a new role for itself now that the nation’s forests are logged out and 2,000 species reportedly threatened with extinction.

–Jonathan Watts in the Guardian

Putting a monetary value on preserving nature, or so-called ‘natural capital’, sounds like a big step in the right direction towards a greener economy that is not solely based on consumption and growth. But China is known for having a high level of corruption and a lack of rule of law. In other words, what looks good on paper may not necessarily translate into a positive effect.

Read the full article in the Guardian.

Meanwhile, the Beijing Zoo is taking a PR beating via another Guardian report regarding the menu in the zoo’s restaurant. Hippopotamus toes, kangaroo tails, ant soup and peacock are all on offer after patrons have gawked at them (not ants) and worked up an appetite.

Though none of these animals are endangered, hippos are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. The rest just offend many people’s sensibilities, I guess. But Western zoos only started concentrating conservation when they fell out of fashion and stopped making money about twenty years ago. Also, no one ever paid to ogle cows, sheep or pigs before they scoffed them down. Lobsters are the rare exception.

by Graham Land

Image Source: Screen capture from video.

A series of massive floods throughout southern China have killed 115 people and 21 more are still missing.

Thirteen provinces were hit by the flood waters, including Guangdong, Sichuan and Zhejiang and the damage toll includes 80,000 homes and over $2 billion in costs. Torrential rain started more than a week ago and the impact has been felt ever since. Over 10 million people have been affected by the floods, with 685,000 of them evacuated from the areas.

The flood definitely has interesting timing, though. It came after the worst drought China’s Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi regions have seen in more than a century. Millions of people had no drinking water and at least 12 million acres were completely barren since last year.

Officials predict that the worst of the storm is over, but updates will be posted as they happen. You can also view a video news report here.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr. By: Chi King.

The center will be located in Dujiangyan and is expected to house 3 to 5 pandas at a time. It will include 21.5 acres designated as an experimental area plus 2,800 acres of woodland.

The plan is to slowly train the bears to become more independent and less dependent on humans. During their first 5 to 10 years in the facility, the pandas will still be restricted to cages; those who adapt well will then be moved to a cave area and taught how to forage for food. Frequent checkups and artificial breeding programs can also be expected at this point.

Once they get past the cave stage, they’ll be moved yet again to a large “natural” zone with even less human contact and finally, they get to look forward to living in a nearby nature reserve. The whole “survival training” process is expected to take a minimum of 15 years.

Personally, I think it’s a bad idea. Instinct and survival skills aren’t really something that can be taught, especially if the majority of that time is spent in a cage or confined area. They’re really the kind of thing that comes naturally or from experience. Plus, if It were a natural situation, a baby panda would only stay with the mother until it was about 18 months and then it would have to go on its own—rather than a 15 year minimum of being captive. One example of a previous project used to train the Giant Pandas is Xiang Xiang. He was trained for 3 years and set into the wild; he was found dead one year after he was released.

There is the chance the program will work and I hope for the pandas’ sake it does.

Do you think animal instinct and survival skills can be taught to a captive animal and if so, should that animal be released into the wild?

By Heidi Marshall

photo by AdamCohn (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

It seems to be the same old story when it comes to the prospects of a binding emissions deal happening in Cancun next November, or any time soon for that matter. India’s environment minister doesn’t think it will happen and China is not expected to impose limits their CO2 emissions.

So far, non-legally binding commitments offer less than what is needed for the ‘crucial’ 2 degrees Celsius limit deemed necessary by scientists to avoid runaway climate change.

From an AFP report:

The Copenhagen accord called for nations to work together to stave off warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels. But voluntary pledges registered under the deal put the Earth on track for increases of 3.5 to 4.0 degrees Celsius (6.3 to 7.2 Fahrenheit).

The US’s main climate negotiator Todd Stern wants a deal that includes limits on all countries except the world’s poorest.

Stern is quoted in the New York Times Dot Earth blog:

We have made our support for a legal agreement clear for more than a year, as long as the agreement is legally symmetrical, with the same elements binding on all countries, except the least developed. Such an agreement should be our goal.

But it doesn’t look very promising, does it?

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

Business Week – China Asked to Measure Emissions in Latest UN Draft Treaty

photo by Vmenkov (source: Wikimedia Commons)

A study in China has shown that cotton genetically modified to fight one pest can result in population explosions of other competing insects.

From a Nature News report:

In 1997, the Chinese government approved the commercial cultivation of cotton plants genetically modified to produce a toxin from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that is deadly to the bollworm Helicoverpa armigera. Outbreaks of larvae of the cotton bollworm moth in the early 1990s had hit crop yields and profits, and the pesticides used to control the bollworm damaged the environment and caused thousands of deaths from poisoning each year.

Mirid bugs, which were previously considered minor pests, are now a major problem since the growth of GM cotton in northern China became widespread. Previously, farmers used broad-spectrum insecticides, which the GM crop is designed to reduce the need for. The decade-long Chinese study showed that GM fields actually became breeding grounds for the pests and facilitated their spread to other farms.

From an article in the Guardian:

Outbreaks of mirid bugs, which can devastate around 200 varieties of fruit, vegetable and corn crops, have risen dramatically in the past decade, as cotton farmers have shifted from traditional cotton crops to GM varieties, scientists said.

Concerns about GM crops include unintended effects they may have on ecosystems and wildlife in the areas in which they are grown. ‘Natural’ or bacterial insecticides are designed to be safer, but there is a risk of unintended and/or unpredictable results. Such is the case of GM cotton, which resembles a ‘whack-a-mole’ game where the original pest was the boll weevil. Once the weevil was dealt with via genetically modified pest control, bollworms and stink bugs took its place in the United States; and now mirid bugs in China.

by Graham Land