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Chinese Environmental Documentary
China Environmental Update
Chinese Spring ‘Climate Bomb’ on Greens
My understanding is some rules were created that were not well thought, some Chinese business people took advantage of them, the rules have changed, and the Chinese business people no longer have an incentive to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way, the coolants that were over produced deliberately so they could get money for disposing of them.
So what is going to be done to safely dispose of what has been made, but not destroyed?
Chinese Spring ‘Climate Bomb’ on Greens - Via MeadiaLabels: chinese environment
Tai Lake and other Environmental Issues
Finally, Blue Skies in Beijing
China vs EU - I"ll take China
Not saying who is right or wrong on the EU Carbon Offsets tiff with the EU, but I think somehow Europe is going to climb down on this. Basically China is saying we are not going to buy major European goods (AirBus Planes for example), unless the carbon offset for air travel is abandoned.
China Bashes EU Greens - Via Mead Labels: chinese environment, Europe, US Chinese Image
Importing Coal, China Burns It as Others Stop
Interesting - Importing Coal, China Burns It as Others Stop - NY Times
As many Western countries limit the construction of power plants using Coal to reduce Global Warming and pollution, they are exporting more coal to China to be burned there.
It's a shame that nobody seems to be doing research any more on burning coal using MHD. The was a lot of work done on this in the late 70's and early 80's, but its seems to have gone into recently. I just found this 2008 presentation on MHD. Labels: china's future, chinese environment
China's 'green economy' will have to wait
New term of the day - fragmented authoritarianism. National government is focused on the environment, and the local is focused on jobs. And the local is being measured on jobs. Good article - China's 'green economy' will have to wait - LA Times Which is a contrast to another article that is also right: Too Many Hamburgers? by Thomas Friedman The trick for any country is to balance both jobs and the environment in a win win manner. WalMart for example is doing an amazing job environmentally, because it makes business sense. Reducing waste and increasing efficiency is a win win way to help the environment. Labels: chinese environment
Rio Tinto Update - Wow! 10 Year Sentence
Very harsh... Basically the Rio Tinto executives are accused of taking bribes to channel high quality steel ore that was in short demand to suppliers. Prison sentences varied from 7 to 14 years. What does this mean for Western owned companies: - Don't upset the Chinese government, or they will make you pay. The timing of this case is extremely suspicious.
- Chinese born employees, even if they are citizens of a Western country, are still treated as Chinese citizens.
- Chinese law is murky. Parts of the trial were closed to outside observer. A politer way of putting it is a weak rule of law. The original charge was theft of state secrets, but that later changed to the bribery charge. The state secret was a nasty charge, since the sentence could be life in prison. The bribery charge is politically smart for China, since now Rio Tinto fired the employees.
- Bribes are a fact of life in China, unfortunately, but enforcement is often politically motivated.
- Openness with materials in high demand and short supply prevents bribery by your employee, or even allegations of bribery.
- Your country, such as the US, Britain, or Australia, is probably not going to have any meaningful support for your company in legal disputes with China if it's a business dispute. Australia has an agreement with China to people from the embassy to attend the entire trial, unfortunately it was ignored by China. The US has a similar agreement.
- Courts are often used in China as a way to put pressure on a business. A business with a lot of connections/political power can put a business person from overseas, especially if they are ethnic Chinese, in jail.
References: Labels: china's future, chinese corruption, chinese environment
Good News on China's Environment
China Leading in Green Energy
Known:- China has a huge demand for more power plants so they are buying 9X more than the US.
- The Chinese government is also pushing green energy (10x the investment of the US).
- Lower cost of manufacturing.
- Plus rare metals used in the generators.
Therefore:- Chinese has become the largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world.
Results: - Great for China
- Worrisome for the US.
Reference:Labels: china's future, chinese environment
China & Copenhagen
The climate summit in Copenhagen reminds me of Rashomon. Two articles: I have read 3 versions so far what happened. One is basically it's China's fault the Copenhagen resulted in a meaningless agreement. The other is China was defending it's economic growth against attempted secret meetings and agreements by other governments. The third version is the third world scuttled the agreement due to not getting enough payment from the first world. Labels: china's future, chinese environment
Beijing's Air Improving?
Pleasant surprise. Very impressive the small and major measures that have been taken to clean up the air. From moving a steel plant (that made no sense to be in Beijing to begin with), to giving residences electric heaters to reduce the use of coal in heating. Labels: chinese environment
Solar Water Heating Huge in China
China, green? In the case of solar water heating, yes LA Times. If you go to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, you will see a still functioning Solar Water heater from the 1920's. There used to be a huge amount in Southern California, but cheap Natural Gas doomed them. Slight come back in the Carter era, but that went away after the subsidies did. Now they are coming back again! And China is leading the way. Interesting. I wish California was pushing more of them, they just make sense for many areas. The temperature was around 100 F this entire week! Labels: chinese environment
China's Great Leap Forward in Green Products
Can I Clean Your Clock? by Thomas Friedman. It seems that China is now putting a priority on production of green products such as Solar, Wind, and other areas... And this is supposed to be the future in many areas of jobs for the US, except it may be a Made in China future. Labels: chinese environment
Beijing Olympic Pollution
I find it exciting that this was measured at all, results are interesting and I hope they spur China's government for more efforts that are effective on cleaning up the pollution there. Beijing air pollution was up to 3.5 times higher than at Summer Games in Athens, Atlanta and Sydney. Labels: china economy, chinese environment
China's Environmental Back Pedaling
Sad - Slump Tilts Priorities of Industry in China - NY Times A pre-Olympics push on the environment has slipped as Chinese officials concentrate on growth.
I was getting hopeful I would need to update my lesson plan on China's Environment. Pollution in China - Lesson Plan  | |  | | | Discussing the current state of pollution in China, it's effect on the local population, what the Chinese Government is doing about it, and comparing it to pollution in the United States and what the current trends are.  |
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Labels: chinese environment
Saving The South China Tiger
China Protests on Factory
From the Washingtonpost - In China, Protesters Clash With Police Over Dangerous Factory. Massive protests in several cities about a chemical plant. Here is more information on what was going to be produced in the plant People vs. chemical plant -- china.org.cn.Interesting Points:1. Factory was going to be located in an area with residential buildings. 2. Property values decreased after the building was announced in the area. 3. Blogging and Cell Phones were used for organizing opposition. 4. Plant was making chemicals for plastics. 5. Supposedly plant was financed by Taiwanese company. 6. Local officials are judged by GDP growth. 7. 1 Million Text messages were sent about the plant. 8. This has also gotten press within China. More Resources: Labels: chinese environment
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