While Greenpeace activists await the results of their medical check-ups after being exposed to Dalian’s crude oil and as several fire fighters recover from their injuries, those responsible for the Dalian ecological nightmare act as if the oil stains had been removed from their own feathers.
Oil along Dalian Beach (photo by Wen Bo)
Chinese media outlet CBN A-Views reported that on August 3rd, the Dalian government welcomed PetroChina’s Chairman Jiang Jiemin and his delegation at the Dalian Shangri-La Hotel and expressed gratitude towards the oil giant’s contribution to Dalian’s economy.
Chinese netizens poured their outcries over cyberspace denouncing PetroChina for its lack of courage to admit its responsibility. Many demanded a formal and public apology from the company and requested compensation for the victims and the marine environment of Dalian.
In the very recent memory of Tom Beeke, a passionate Canadian birder, Dalian’s Jinshitan resort was still his land of discovery. Tom got a job as English teacher at Dalian Maple Leaf International School several years ago. Besides living close to the sandy beach, it was also a great treat being able to venture around Jishintan coast, bushes and wetlands to watch birds. This summer, Tom’s new book, Birds of Dalian, hit the local book market.
Dalian, located on the East Asia-Pacific Flyway of migratory birds, is an important stopover site for birds migrating between Siberia and Australia. For those birds, who are now in Siberia, their journeys south will soon start. For this year’s new chicks, their first ever encounter with the coasts, islands and the sea around Dalian will begin one month later. (more…)
Zhong Yu of Greenpeace bears witness to the Dalian oil spill (Photo: Greenpeace)
Twenty-two years ago, when my high school classmates unfolded a banner with the words “Save Our Seas!”, we put the Greenpeace logo on the banner. At that time, we were protesting marine debris littering the coasts of Dalian.
Now, twenty-two years since that unofficial Greenpeace banner hung in 1988, Dalian received its first official support from Greenpeace with the deployment of several Greenpeace teams to respond to the massive oil spill in Dalian.
Zhong Yu, senior action coordinator with Greenpeace China, was not prepared for what she saw nor for what she would encounter. Like many clean up workers and local fishermen, Zhong did not wear protective gear when she walked into thick crude oil along the beach. The photo of her wearing a red Greenpeace T-shirt and blue jeans was the first telling image from Greenpeace bearing witness to the Dalian disaster. (more…)
Firefighters responding to the scene of the Oil spill in Dalian, China (Photo from Netease)
To Chinese firefighter Jiang Hui, his Darley fire truck was his darling. Jiang had been a driver with a $1 million fire truck since his unit purchased it three years ago, and he liked this American brand.
Jiang was among the earliest squads to reach the burning and smoky scene in Dalian. While shooting water and foam to the fire, the blazing crude oil quickly rushed near their feet. The tires of the fire truck caught fire. Jiang jumped into the truck and tried to move it, but the flame started to engulf the fire truck. Another firefighter ran to the truck’s front side, pulled Jiang out of the cabin and dragged him away.
The heat was too hot to bear. While some firefighters shot water canons towards the burning oil tanker, others had to shoot water towards the front line of firefighters to cool them down.
“Water, Water!”, “Foam!” were the shouts of the firefighters mixed with the sounds of continuous explosions and blazing noise of fireballs.
A Dalian TV cameraman, Lu Jianwei, captured a short conversation of a firefighter, later identified as Xu Zhiyou, talking to his wife over the cell phone. “Dear, I might not be back, treat mom well, treat our child well!” On the other side of the line, his wife must have asked why. “Don’t ask, no time, I will stop here.” Then he turned off the phone and rushed towards the fire. (more…)
On July 16, an oil pipeline in Dalian, owned and operated by ChinaPetrol Group exploded while loading oil off a Libyan tanker.
The Financial Times reported today, “The disaster began last Friday, when two pipelines exploded as high-sulphur crude was being unloaded from a Libyan tanker. State media said firefighters were on the scene within three minutes and more than 2,000 firefighters were deployed to battle the blaze, which raged through Saturday morning.” According to Chinese media report, the explosion has caused 1500 tons of oil to spill, reaching an ocean area of 50km with pollution likely to spread to 100km. John Amos from SkyTruth made the above satellite image of the Dalian Spill. (more…)
Posted by Xiu Min Li
Originally posted on ChinaDialogue.net
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…)
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…)
Xiu and Yang are on a three-week field visit in China. They are currently visiting Green Camel Bell in Gansu Province. Here’s clip of what they’ve been up to. Check it out:
Ran Liping, Green Camel Bell’s Water Program staff is introducing the town of Lingxia, an ethnic Hui-dominated city that is currently listed as Medium Level polluted in China’s Air Pollution Index. We are visiting this area to find out more about five of the polluting enterprises listed by Gansu Environmental Protection Agency and how they are affecting the area people’s lives.
This Sunday, after an hour and a half of a typically frantic and heart-stopping taxi ride through the dusty and congested streets of Lanzhou, we arrived at the Lanzhou Business School to participate in an International Youth Environmentalist Exchange Salon, organized by several university-based environmental clubs. I gave a presentation on Pacific Environment’s work, highlighting each program’s unique focus and approach to demonstrate the diverse ways that U.S. NGOs deal with different environmental issues. Simon, a French student and volunteer with Green Camel Bell (GCB) talked about sustainable development in France and Ran Liping, Green Camel Bell’s Water Program Officer presented on GCB’s work.
Although China now has over 3,500 NGOs, most concentrate in big and high profile cities like Beijing and Yunnan. In backwater regions like Western China, the concept of NGOs is still foreign. Being the only registered environmental NGO in Gansu Province and with a growing reputation both domestically and internationally, Green Camel Bell is nonetheless finding it challenging to hire qualified people to join its expansive programs. They hired two people a few months ago through a recruitment event they held at a university; one left after seeing the homey but sparse GCB office located on the ground floor of a residential complex, the other left after a field visit to GCB’s rural project after realizing how difficult the work is. (more…)
Posted by Wen Bo
Posted by Xiu Min Li
Posted by Xiu Min Li
hour and a half of a typically frantic and heart-stopping taxi ride through the dusty and congested streets of Lanzhou, we arrived at the Lanzhou Business School to participate in an International Youth Environmentalist Exchange Salon, organized by several university-based environmental clubs. I gave a presentation on Pacific Environment’s work, highlighting each program’s unique focus and approach to demonstrate the diverse ways that U.S. NGOs deal with different environmental issues. Simon, a French student and volunteer with Green Camel Bell (GCB) talked about sustainable development in France and Ran Liping, Green Camel Bell’s Water Program Officer presented on GCB’s work.
