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.
Grandpa Hu (not his real name) said “my loyalty always lies with Chairman Mao.” His red pin emblazoned with the golden head of Mao proudly hung on his left chest. It sparkled in the sun, its statement pronounced by the backdrop of his dark blue vest. Grandpa Hu wore a pair of wide-rimmed Polaroid sunglasses, which were unusually fancy for a retired peasant. He seemed healthy and strong. His description of how his family was unaffected by the flood sounded proud and almost cheery. Grandpa Hu said he used to work for the Forestry Department, until they decided they needed someone who was literate to do the job. He was told to retire early. His accent was very thick and I had to wait for my host to transcribe his words to match my speculation of what he may have said. (more…)
I am in love with my new job. On my very first day, as I dived into my role as the new China Program Associate, I worked with our guest from a partner organization in China, Green Camel Bell. Not only did I learn about the work of Green Camel Bell in China, I also got to learn about the progress on environmental projects in San Francisco. In addition, on only my third day of work, I was already walking barefoot around the office. Initially, I was hesitant to move my life from NYC to SF for this job. Now, I worry about losing the job. It seems too good to be true. I get to read news articles that interest me, work on solving environmental problems in China big or small, and travel to China on the 19th of this month for 28 days.
Today marked my third week working at Pacific Environment as the China Program Associate. I have been reading up on news, learning about the sub-grant wire process and translating partners’ mid-project reports. At first, I definitely felt overwhelmed in adjusting to the workload, but I’ve had great help from my supervisor and co-workers in adjusting to the work as well as to San Francisco. Now, my goal is to understand the work of the grassroots environmental non-profits in China and help them enhance China’s environment. It would be great if our partners can get the industries to pay for their pollution discharge. It is hard enough for China to fix its water pollution problems with Chinese industries, now China has to deal with pollution problems caused by international enterprises.
I shot the following videos at Lake Azabache and in Bistrinsky Nature Park in central Kamchatka during a mid-July trip with my colleague Igor Goldfarb.
Here you can see a spawning stream filled with sockeye salmon as they complete the final leg of their journey to the spawning grounds. When I took this video, these fish had already traveled from the ocean, up two rivers, across a lake, and up several miles of this stream. The white fish have already spawned, and are beginning to die. The media portrays post-spawn salmon mortality as a romantic sacrifice, but the truth is far more gruesome: after completing their “duty,” the salmon literally begin to fall apart. The upshot is that the nutrients the salmon bring to Kamchatka’s rivers feed entire villages, an enormous population of bears, and even fertilizes the surrounding forest. (more…)
Back in July, Igor and I went to visit a partner who conducts anti-poaching patrols in the Nalichego Nature Park, not far from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. We had to take a boat to his home within the park and, after a day-long tour, rode back to the truck to head home. As we turned a corner we saw the following image:
Right there, in the middle of a federal park on waters where any fishing equipment beyond a spinning rod is banned, we caught two men stringing a net across the mouth of a key spawning river.
I realized just how complacent poachers can be on Kamchatka, but it also revealed how a little support in the right places can significantly ameliorate the problem. Our partner in this park will likely catch several similarly complacent poachers this season. And if we can find more committed partners like him to conduct similar work, we can show poachers that their illegal work will not be tolerated by the locals who care the most about healthy salmon populations.
Olkhon is the third-largest lake-bound island in the world, and the largest in Lake Baikal with an area of 730 square kilometers (280 sq mi). On the evening of July 2nd, I arrived in Khuzhir, the administrative center of the Olkhon Island. I planned to spend the weekend finalizing a grant proposal and meeting with local activists.
I went for a run along the lake when I arrived. The last time I visited the island was in 1998, with a crew of filmmakers who I accompanied as an interpreter and a local chaperone. At the time, the island did not have electricity. In fact, the few people that did live there lived off diesel generators which supplied enough electricity for basic lighting, cooking, and an hour or two of TV in the evening. Back then, there were only a few foreigners who used to stride along the streets of Khuzhir, attracting a lot of attention from local kids. There were one or two grocery stores and a couple of tourist guest houses. One of the most famous guest houses was run by the island’s local interpreter, Nikita Bencharov, who had extra wooden cabins and some sites for tents in his backyard. (more…)
Since late June, almost 1000 American consumers have written letters to Steve Jobs and Apple’s Public Relations Department urging them to address concerns of China’s Green Choice Alliance regarding heavy metal pollution from suppliers in China.
The IT industry is well known for its toxic legacy in its disposal cycle, but little attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of its production. In 2009, more than 4000 people, mostly children, were afflicted with lead poisoning in China inspiring the Green Choice Alliance to initiate a campaign to clean up multinational’s IT supply chains. The Alliance is taking action where the government is unable to, namely targeting brand-conscious multinationals to attract public and media attention to the cause. (more…)
Recently we reported on 34 Chinese NGOs writing to 29 multinational IT companies regarding companies in the supply chain who are found to be in violation of environmental regulations in China. These letters cited specific suppliers to these IT companies and their specific environmental violations according to Chinese government reports. In these letters, we requested that the IT companies, including Apple, IBM and Sony, to verify the information and commit to actions to address these violations.
Among the 29 companies, eight have chosen not to respond. Pacific Environment tried to contact two U.S. companies that did not respond: Apple and IBM. Both have responded without addressing the key questions and concerns raised in the letters.
On June 5th, these NGOs published a second report regarding the status of these companies’ response. Read the report (English) hereand stay tuned for further updates from us.
In early April, 34 Chinese environmental NGOs wrote letters to 29 IT companies regarding members of their supply chains violating Chinese environmental laws and regulations. The list included suppliers for global brands like Apple, IBM, Intel, Sony and Lenova.
Ten days of mostly silence on the part of these companies led to a press conference that attracted widespread media attention and finally some responses. According to an insider source, some companies claimed that these violations took place before they became buyers; others made vague promises of investigations and redress. Hundreds of letters and phone calls are being exchanged between the parties and much work is still needed to be done. (more…)
Grandpa Hu (not his real name) said “my loyalty always lies with Chairman Mao.” His red pin emblazoned with the golden head of Mao proudly hung on his left chest. It sparkled in the sun, its statement pronounced by the backdrop of his dark blue vest. Grandpa Hu wore a pair of wide-rimmed Polaroid sunglasses, which were unusually fancy for a retired peasant. He seemed healthy and strong. His description of how his family was unaffected by the flood sounded proud and almost cheery. Grandpa Hu said he used to work for the Forestry Department, until they decided they needed someone who was literate to do the job. He was told to retire early. His accent was very thick and I had to wait for my host to transcribe his words to match my speculation of what he may have said. 
Posted by Min Zheng
Olkhon is the third-largest 
