Cinematheque: Mulan is finally Chinese again! (and other film news)
Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Barbie Spa: For the cosmopolitan plastic beauty in you
Obama in China: Long gone, and still headlinin'
Lot o' Hotpot: Three Travellers
During his discussion with Kerry Brown and Duncan Hewitt at the recently held Shanghai International Literary Festival, Paul French quoted British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt as saying that "the biggest problem with the environment in China is that nobody in China could care less about it".
China's environmental woes are well-documented and, despite attempts to convince the world otherwise, the country is still rarely seen as a leader on environmental protection. Having twenty of the world's top thirty most polluted cities doesn't help. Nor does backtracking on apparently progressive ideas such as the calculating of a green GDP. But does all this mean that ordinary Chinese folk don't care about the environment?
Shanghaiist knows some people over at Roots & Shoots who would disagree with Porritt for starters, but in light of his comments we thought we’d share with you a couple of green links that caught our eye this week.
First up, in an interesting piece over on China Dialogue, Dan Murphy looks at the recruitment problems facing the country's environmental NGOs. He explores the numerous social pressures that can prevent people from joining NGOs in China and argues that more effort should be made to break down some of the barriers to participation. Meanwhile, commenting on Murphy's article, the Crossroads site succinctly summarises the chicken and egg conundrum facing NGOs in China:
Simply put, if an NGO cannot fundraise, then it cannot attract talent.. and if they cannot attract talent.. they will never be able to fundraise because establishing trust with funders, developing stable programs, and developing a scalable platform is nearly impossible without funding.
Of course, the government’s discomfort with large-scale volunteer member oganisations, regardless of their intentions, also remains an enormous hurdle for effective NGO work in the country.
Staying on the subject of China and the environment, a recent interview over on the Treehugger site, alerted us to a documentary project called The Green Dragon. The TH interview is with the founders of the project, which looks at the potential for green development in China by focusing on the construction industry. There is also an excellent website to accompany the film — providing extensive resources and information on China and the environment — which is well worth checking out.
Finally, you can find a database of Chinese environmental NGOs at greengo.cn, proving that despite the country's numerous adverse effects on the environment, there are plenty of people here who are trying to do something about it and who really do care.
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More people probably would care but some in authority tell everyone that this is a normal stage in economic development and that the US and Europe were just as polluted 100 years ago (not true, many of today's pollutants only existed on chalkboards back then), much of the world's pollution is caused solely by the US and Europe (again, false, probably half at most) and lastly that the US and European gov'ts sent heavy industry to China to clean their own environment (biggest lie of all, MNCs went to China on their own to avoid labor and enviro regs).
Wow, a reasonable comment from lamb skewer. I happen to agree with him. THe other thing I'd mention is that it's not a lack of caring, it's a lack of education about consequences and causes. Everyone complains about the air and pollution and dirtyness, but very few see their own role in causing this. We may think it's readily apparent, but that's because we were raised in a "Don't Pollute/Don't throw trash in the street/Don't dump oil down the storm drain" sort of society.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I have to add nobody in China could care less about it - WHAT?
Nobody in China could care less about it? That's some tortured English. I know he's trying to say "nobody in China cares about the environment" but that's just terrible.
This article is talking about the bigger environmental picture, but the greatest indicator to me of the Chinese attitude towards the environment is at the local level. How many times have I seen a Mercedes or Audi roll down their window and toss copious amounts of trash onto the street? How many small towns have I visited where everyone simply throws trash out their window and it collects in disgusting mini-mountains? Or the Canadian tour guide in Tibet who was incensed that the Chinese tour groups would go to a gorgeous unspoiled area and leave it littered with trash? Pathetic.
It may only be a small example of a few, young Chinese designers speaking out for the environment, but I've found an inspirational anecdote or two in China.
A group called “Unigreen” has made an open offer online to hand-stitch a free chopstick / soup spoon holder for anyone who pledges to only carry reusable chopsticks. Here's the event page: http://www.neocha.com/group/environmentalists/event!847.html
I think grassroots initiatives like this from the younger, more environmentally aware generation in China may signal a small but meaningful shift in thinking away from China’s current consumption habits.
What do you mean by "Wow!"????????????
What China needs is a PR campaign showing urban bosses littering and freely peeing then cut to a picture of a Tibetan or Uyghur peasant shedding a tear (only Americans will get this).
Not to excuse anyone for throwing trash out the window but most of you are probably too young to remember when it was common practice in the USA. When I was a kid in the fifties people did it all the time. California's answer was to make littering a crime punishable by a $250 fine and post big signs along all the highways. That was lots of money way back then. The change toward protecting the environment came along with all the other things that happened in the 60s, i.e. racism isn't cool, war might not solve all political problems, water pollution that causes cancer in children is a bad thing, rampant consumerism is unsustainable, there is only one planet and polluting one part of it is bad for everyone, etc. etc. Just more good ideas we should thank those dirty hippies for. Where will the Chinese hippies come from?
I got it, but it's stupid. The urban bosses in China didn't "discover" a new world with 50 million Tibetan inhabitants, slaughter them, take their land and pollute it. So why would Tibetans be shedding that tear? It makes no sense.
The urban bosses in China didn't "discover" a new world with 50 million Tibetan inhabitants, slaughter them, take their land and pollute it.
That's exactly what happened almost 60 years ago.
Bad, bad China.
hahahahhahaha, now I know you're joking. Thanks for humouring me, it's almost cute.
Sorry, Les, I'm not that old, but even I know your history is wrong. Environmentalism's history line starts with John Muir and the Sierra Club goes through Rachel Carson/Silent Spring . . . and legislation like the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act had scant to do with the hippies.
To give credit for the Civil Rights Movement (which pre-dated the hippies) and the Environmental Movement (also pre-dated the hippies) to a bunch of over-privileged pseudo rebels minimizes the contributions of who really was important to those movements.
The only positive hippies ever gave us was getting the US out of Vietnam, but that's pretty much equalized by the permissive free love and drug society they gave rise to in the 70s which resulted in the fucked up era of my childhood.
If the hippies were powerful enough to end racism and start the environmental movement, why weren't they powerful enough to stop Nixon or Reagan from getting elected?
Hippies = most overrated protesters in history.
Man, I just had a slice but you tossed the whole ham up in there!! Sorry for my weak attempt at humour. Wasn't that hippie music pretty good too though? I just cant quite seem to recall. But hey, seriously, talkin' about electing presidents.... the latest generation of Americans gave us G. W. Bush twice. Nobody's perfect.
the topic is quite a miserable generazation. but i understand..draw attention