The past few months have been busy for the budding environmental organization Green Stone. First, they stopped a plan to cut down 1,000 trees for a new subway line in the city of Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province. Next, they exposed a case of persistent, carcinogenic water pollution in one of Apple’s printed circuit board supply chains in the city of Kunshan (see Apple Report). The day before I arrived for a three day visit last month, one of Nanjing’s largest corporations called the Green Stone office, asking what they could do to improve their pollution record. Meanwhile, the Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau has asked Green Stone to be patient as they work to address the hundreds of pollution information disclosures requested by the group. “I think they are kind of afraid of us,” Green Stone’s Director Li Chunhua laughed.

The key to Green Stone’s recent success is not necessarily experience (their staff of three are all in their mid-twenties) but courage, charisma and recruiting. On a windy Sunday morning, we met staff and a group of 25 water monitoring volunteers by the edge of the Qinhuai River, the main river that bisects Nanjing City.  Most of the volunteers were under thirty years of age, including a few new freshmen from nearby universities. Everyone’s spirits were high as we embarked on one of Green Stone’s bi-monthly “river walks,” to collect water quality samples using donated equipment, and to survey visitors to the river. Most were male retirees, folks who have been coming to the river in their leisure hour for decades. “The river stinks when it’s not flowing,” one of our survey participants observed. “It needs to flow. When it doesn’t move the pollution gets worse.”

The Qinhuai River flows into the much larger Yangtze, the source of Nanjing’s water supply. The Qinhuai used to be much more polluted, at least on the surface. In the past decade, Nanjing has spent hundreds of millions of US dollars to clean up the river. Upstream farms were shut down due to their use of agricultural chemicals, and wastewater infrastructure has been improved. During our river walk we observed garbage patrol boats with long-handled scoops picking up every visible scrap of trash.

But with water pollution, there is often more than what meets the eye. As we conducted our basic water quality tests, a volunteer from Nanjing University held a tiny bottle filled with pink water up to a laminated chart, to “read” the levels of dissolved oxygen in the sample. “It looks like a four,” he said, indicating a significantly depressed level of dissolved oxygen. Since there is little farming left on the Qinhuai, the problem is likely being caused by untreated urban sewage and runoff.

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This summer, Pacific Environment had the joy of hosting Zhou Xiang for a few days in the San Francisco Bay area.  Zhou Xiang, Executive Director of Pacific Environment’s partner group Green Anhui, is an inspiring leader in the new generation of environmentalists in China.

Touring the Berkeley recycling plant

Having grown up in a coal mining region in Anhui Province, he was influenced at an early age by environmental issues in his hometown.  He studied chemical engineering in college, but then made a 180 degree turn.  At his talk at the Asia Foundation on August 22^nd, Zhou Xiang remarked “I studied chemistry in college, and probably would have worked for the chemical industry. But then I met Wen Bo from Pacific Environment and instead, I started Green Anhui.”

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In June, Pacific Environment was lucky to host visiting scholar Chen Yongsong, from the Chinese non-profit organization Yunnan Econetwork. Born in the tropical rainforests at the southern tip of China, Yongsong is a seasoned environmental advocate who has worked as a consultant to the Chinese government on a range of environmental issues. For example, he helped develop and ground truth the first government-led sustainable development plan for Yunnan Province, working with communities on a huge range of pilot projects in forestry, agriculture, and environmental management.

Our San Francisco staff and other colleagues gathered to hear Yongsong’s insights into Chinese environmental politics. From a foreign perspective, the space for environmental advocacy in China can be seen as quite narrow, and it was refreshing to learn from Yongsong that the space for doing effective grassroots environmental work in China is much larger than we may think.

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One Oscar apparently isn’t enough for filmmakers Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon.   Once again, the dedicated environmental documentarians have been nominated in the category of Best Documentary Short, this time for The Warriors of Qiugang.  The poignant film chronicles a small group of Chinese villagers’ 5-year battle to bring an end to lethal water pollution caused by three factories that had come to dominate their tiny hamlet.

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Wetlands are an incredible environmental resource, providing critical habitat for countless animals and plant species, and natural water filtration and storage.  Wetlands help regulate water tables during floods and storm surges, and also serve an important carbon storage function. It is alarming, then, that our wetlands are degrading faster than any other ecosystem type, primarily due to climate change and development.

In honor of World Wetlands Day today, we at Pacific Environment would like to highlight some of the great work being done by our partners in wetlands around the Pacific Rim.  In particular, we would like to acknowledge the work of Dauria and the Rivers without Boundaries Coalition to assist WWF-Amur and the Daursky Biosphere Reserve in their efforts to protect the Ramsar wetlands within the transboundary Amur River basin in eastern Russia at the China-Russia border.  We would also like to acknowledge our partners in China, the China Mangrove Conservation Network, for their work on protecting ancient Looking-glass mangroves.

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Program Director at Wuhu Ecology Center

In China, the paper industry is considered highly polluting and energy intensive. Its COD emissions are ranked first among all industries. Anhui, in Eastern China, has a high concentration of paper companies, and the Wuhu Ecology Center focuses on the pollution problems associated with them. In the process of collecting information regarding papermaking companies in Anhui, Shandong Chenming Paper Group’s repeated violations of environmental regulations came to our attention. Within the paper industry, Chenming Paper Group is one of the biggest publicly traded companies. It has integrated pulp and paper-making production and is quickly becoming one of top 500 companies in China and one of the top 50 in the world. Chenming’s product is sold globally, including to the United States. (more…)

In a post here from last summer, Xiu Min Li, Pacific Environment China Program Director, covered an investigation by Chinese environmental groups into heavy metal pollution caused by manufacturers who supply parts to Apple Corporation.  4,000 Chinese suffered from lead poisoning in 2009, prompting the Alliance to investigate and embark on a letter-writing campaign to the companies who contract with those manufacturers.  Apple did not respond until it received nearly a thousand letters from American consumers, weeks after other companies that were investigated had all already responded to Alliance inquiries.  Late might be better than never, but it didn’t save Apple from a scathing review.

Last week, The Green Choice Alliance released a report called “The Other Side of Apple” in which they ranked the computer tech giant last among 29 multi-technology companies’ for response to public inquiry and investigation regarding pollution and working conditions at factories in their supply line.  The Alliance, a coalition of 36 Chinese environmental NGOs, is lead by The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a Pacific Environment partner.

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In China, it is true that one should be cautious of drinking tap water to avoid an upset stomach. However, one must not forget that the impacts of water pollution do spread beyond drinking water. Irrigation water used for agriculture in China may not be that clean either.

It is often the case that irrigation water is often pumped directly from any nearby water source, regardless of its purity. The water sources used for irrigation are often contaminated by heavy metals or other chemicals discharged by industrial activities.  In recent years, farmers have moved away from using organic agriculture practices to using more industrial farming techniques in order to save time and gain larger profits. This means that water sources in China are also plagued by agriculture pesticides. To add more fuel to the fire,  how can we expect Chinese farmers to find the extra money to filter their irrigation water if they already have trouble getting their own drinking water treated?

The impacts of unclean irrigation water can be traced all the way down the supply chain to China’s street markets where fresh produce are bought and sold. This raises a very important issue – and that is of food safety and food security.

I recently visited China on behalf of Pacific Environment’s China program. As a Chinese American visiting China, the first thing I wanted to do after checking in to my hotel was to find the nearest market or fruit stand so that I could satiate my hunger with healthy bite to eat.  Visiting the street market in Jilin was a nostalgic moment for me as the experience seemed so authentic and down to earth. It brought back memories of my childhood in China.

At first, it was natural for me not to question the safety of the food I bought, because I was carried away by the market’s atmosphere and I was busy reliving my childhood memory of China. Food safety was something I never used to think about. But returning back to the realization that I am visiting China for work related to water pollution, I did wonder about the chemicals and pesticides that may have been infused to nurture the tree that produced the fruit.  I thought to myself, are there any regulations on the produce sold in these markets and should there be? Or should I not be concerned and just deal with it like the local and enjoy myself?

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What is your definition of clean water? After visiting, hearing and reading up on stories about water pollution in China and actually visiting some of the villages myself, I wondered why locals are so nonchalant about the situation. Is it reality, resilience or helplessness?

I took the following photos on a recent trip to China to illustrate how water resources are used by locals. Some of the images are eye-opening and remind me of how fortunate I am to have clean water here in the United States.

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A documentary short film about an environmental campaign that our partner Green Anhui worked on has been selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as a finalist to compete for an Oscar in 2011.  The film, “The Warriors of Qiugang” is about a local village in China who stood up against three factories that have been polluting their local farmland and waterways.  This is a big deal as the film nicely illustrates the type of environmental and social justice battles that are often fought in China.  Since 2006, our partner Green Anhui has worked with Qiugang Village and their leader Zhang Gongli (aka the “warriors” profiled in the film) to fight against the three local factories. Their fight eventually led to the shutdown and relocation of these factories.

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