The Three Gorges Dam is a massive water control project built on the upper reaches of China’s famed Yangtze River. The dam is located near what used to be the town of old Sandouping (since submerged by the project and rebuilt), in the middle section of Xiling Gorge – the longest and once most dangerous of the Three Gorges – close to the city of Yichang, the major transportation hub of China’s Hubei Province.

[...]Measured only by the number of people relocated, the Three Gorges Project is an unprecedented hydro-engineering project. But if one also considers the technological and environmental challenges, it is a massive dam of truly astonishing dimensions that has tested the powers of human imagination.

How did such an enormously difficult and controversial project like the Three Gorges Dam win such a deep commitment from so many people? The audacious inspiration behind the massive project belongs, in fact, to a few political figures from China’s past.

Also see previous CDT coverage of the the Three Gorges Dam and the controversy surrounding it.

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Post tags: environmental activism, Three Gorges Dam, Yangtze River
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The Chinese air regulator said China’s carriers are barred from paying the charges or other fees without government permission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said Beijing will consider unspecified measures in response to protect Chinese companies.

There was no indication there would be any immediate impact on flights between China and Europe or penalties for Chinese airlines. The charges took effect in January but money will not be collected until next year.

The dispute highlights Beijing’s complicated status in global climate efforts.

China is the biggest source of climate-changing gases but as a developing country is exempt from Kyoto Protocol emission limits. Owners of Chinese power plants and factories have received billions of dollars from a European system that pays developing countries to curb emissions but Beijing has resisted binding limits.

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Post tags: airlines, carbon emissions, EU
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The spill, which affected 200 miles of the Longjiang River in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was caused by two companies that accidentally released tons of cadmium into the river last month. The contamination was not reported for at least two weeks, during which people continued to use the water for drinking and cooking.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, among those fired from their jobs was the head of environmental protection in the city of Hechi, which failed to report the spill and then botched the attempted cleanup. Several other officials, including the city’s deputy mayor, were reportedly disciplined. The police have also arrested six people at the Hongquan Lithopone Factory and the Jinhe Mining Company, which are blamed for the spill. Four other managers at the companies have fled, Xinhua reported.

During a news conference in Hechi on Friday, officials said that 90,000 pounds of fish and more than a million fry had been killed and that several hundred villagers downstream had consumed river water for five days before they were notified about the dangers.

Authorities claim that it will take approximately one month to clean up the cadmium spill, but officials have said that the tap water in the region is safe to drink. The Times of India adds:

Efforts to cleanup industrial effluents from a major river in south China will take a month, authorities said on Friday.

Cadmium concentration in Liujiang river is expected to drop below the official limit Feb 28, China Daily quoted Xu Zhencheng, head of the emergency panel, as saying.

Cleanup efforts have brought down cadmium levels from 80 times to 20 times the official limit of 0.005 milligrams per litre Thursday, said professor Zhang Xiaojian of Tsinghua University.

The contamination was first detected Jan 15. A plant belonging to Jinhe Mining Co. Ltd. is suspected to be the source of the spill. A 300-km section of the river is affected.

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Post tags: Cadmium Poisoning, Guangxi, industrial pollution, water pollution
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Though pollution data are best collected near the ground, a plausible estimate may be made from the vantage-point of a satellite by measuring how much light is blocked by particles, and estimating from those particles’ chemical composition the likely distribution of their sizes. And a report prepared for The Economist by a team led by Angel Hsu of Yale University does just that, drawing on data from American satellites to map out PM2.5 pollution across the entire country.

[...]This approach is not perfect. Satellites are not great at taking readings over bright surfaces like snow and deserts, and cannot easily distinguish particles high up in the atmosphere from those closer to the ground. And the data also have to be adjusted to take account of the fact that pollution and people tend to coincide.

[...]Such caveats aside, however, this study shows how far China still needs to go in cleaning up its act. Pollution and development have always marched hand in hand, and may even be regarded as tolerable so long as they mark only a temporary blip on the road to prosperity. What is intolerable is that it takes outside intervention to lift the lid on what is happening.

An article in The Telegraph also speaks to the known affiliation between development and pollution, and explains why we may not see China clean up its act anytime soon:

The problem is that there is a huge disconnect between central and local governments. In China, local officials are judged first and foremost by their success at improving the GDP of their regions. And no official seeking promotion wants to shut down a factory that is making money, even if it is spewing out pollution.

Another article in The Telegraph describes how local negligence may be responsible for recent cadmium contamination in southern China’s Longjiang river:

Even considering China’s notoriously poor environmental record, the spill in Guangxi Province is huge with officials describing it as “unprecedented”.

[...]On Monday, cadmium levels in the Longjiang River were 80 times higher than the safe limit.

[...]“It is apparently a glaring failure by local authorities to let the massive spill happen in the first place, not to mention the embarrassing fact that they cannot even pin down the pollution sources after two weeks,” Professor Dai Tagen, a metal pollution expert at the Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, told a Hong Kong newspaper.

[...]Despite orders from Beijing to make environmental protection a high priority, local governments in China frequently turn a blind eye to polluting industries in an effort to boost economic output.

In a China Daily article, Greenpeace activist Ma Tianjie used the Longjiang incident to illustrate how more transparency can help to solve pollution in China:

Some officials may fear that making too much pollution information public could trigger panic among people. But results from a recent initiative by the Ministry of Environmental Protection should be able to dispel such concerns. In August 2011, the ministry made an unprecedented move by releasing detailed pollution information on more than 1,900 lead-acid battery facilities across the country. It was the first time that information on an entire industry’s environmental performance was made public.

Reactions to the initiative were overwhelmingly positive. A close scrutiny of the data by the media, environmental NGOs and the public resulted in corrections and a dataset of improved quality, which would only help the ministry to better supervise the listed facilities. Updated data were released again to the public in November. But no panic followed. Instead, what we got were improved data and an empowered public.

Environmental information disclosure is credited for having helped many industrialized countries achieve significant reduction in toxic releases. Systems such as the US Toxics Release Inventory incur only minimal administrative cost, but are highly effective. There is no reason why China, still exploring ways to rein in rampant pollution, should not make use of such readily available instruments.

Despite calls for transparency in the official media, The Guardian gives an example of continued opacity in China’s environmental policy:

It ought to have been a centrepiece of China‘s efforts to reduce smog, but the government has quietly postponed plans to clean the fumes from truck and bus exhaust pipes.

The 18-month delay of new diesel emission standards, which was announced this month, runs contrary to the authorities’ promises to tighten controls on air pollution.

Environmental scientists say the move shows public health concerns remain far less of a priority for China’s leaders than the economic interests of state-owned petrol companies, PetroChina and Sinopec.

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Post tags: activism, air pollution, air quality, PM 2.5, transparency, water pollution
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Crews in the city of Liuzhou used ships to spread canvas across the Longjiang River and stop the cadmium, China National Radio reported today. Tests done at 6 p.m. yesterday at Liuzhou’s water plants met national standards, it said.

The cadmium spill, first detected Jan. 15 upstream in the city of Hechi, has killed fish and prompted panic buying of bottled water, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. Hechi Mayor He Xinxing issued a public apology after the incident, China National Radio reported. The city’s Communist Party Chief Huang Shiyong pledged to “severely crack down” on polluting companies, the China News Service reported.

Environmental contamination has fueled social unrest in China as three decades of growth transformed the nation into the world’s second-biggest economy and its largest polluter. Lead poisoning from battery makers, fluoride leaks from solar panel plants and acid spills from copper mines are among incidents that have sparked public outrage, prompting President Hu Jintao and other senior officials to pledge to reduce pollution.

In Guangxi, authorities dumped hundreds of tons of chemicals into the river to neutralize the cadmium, according to Xinhua. Hechi officials haven’t been able to confirm the direct source of the pollution because of the area’s complicated geography, China National Radio reported, citing Wu Haique, director of the city’s environmental protection agency.

Cadmium may cause kidney dysfunction and cancer, and the chemical is speculated to have a lasting impact on the soil in the riverbed and the local fish. Seven people have been detained as a result of this spill. Bloomberg adds:

China detained seven people in connection with a toxic metal spill in Guangxi province that contaminated a tributary of the Pearl River and threatened water for 1.5 million people, according to a local official.

All seven were executives at chemical plants, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late yesterday, citing Feng Zhennian, an official with the regional environmental protection department. Feng didn’t identify the executives, Xinhua said.

Several instances of chemical spills have threatened Chinese cities’ drinking water in the past decade. A 2005 explosion at a unit of PetroChina Co. in northern China caused 100 tons of toxins to be spilled into the Songhua river, forcing authorities to shut off tap water for more than 3 million people in the city of Harbin. That incident led to the resignation of Xie Zhenhua as China’s top environmental protection official.

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Post tags: environment, Guangxi, industrial pollution, pollution, water pollution
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Officials have claimed for years that the air quality in fast-growing China is constantly improving. Beijing, for example, was said to have experienced a record 274 “blue sky” days in 2011, a statistic belied by the heavy smog smothering the city for much of the year.

But faced with an Internet-led brushfire of criticism, the edifice of environmental propaganda is collapsing. The government recently reversed course and began to track the most pernicious measure of urban air pollution — particulates 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, or PM 2.5. It decreed that about 30 major cities must begin monitoring the particulates this year, followed by about 80 more next year.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection also promised to set health standards for such fine particulates “as soon as possible.” Last week, after years of concealing its data on such pollutants, Beijing began publishing hourly readings from one monitoring station.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nonprofit Beijing group, credits the Chinese public for the breakthroughs. “At the beginning of last year, we had almost lost hope that the PM 2.5 would be integrated into the standards,” Mr. Ma said in a telephone interview. “But at the end of the day, the people spoke so loudly that they made their voice heard.”

Other recent environmental protests include a movement against a chemical factory in Dalian and against a polluting solar panel factory in Zhejiang. Read more about recent citizen actions against environmental pollution via CDT. Check out CDT’s Environment page for much more on the topic.

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Post tags: activism, air pollution, environmental protests, online activism, transparency
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Japan had held the No.1 position since at least 1975 until 2010, the International Energy agency’s Coal Information showed.

China, also the world’s biggest coal producer and consumer, imported 182.4 million tonnes of the fuel in 2011, 10.8 percent higher than a year earlier, data from the country showed.

Japan’s customs-cleared imports fell 5.1 percent to 175.2 million tonnes last year, hurt by slack demand for coking coal as steelmakers curbed production.

It is unclear whether China will retain this position, however, as a Reuters poll last month showed the country’s coal imports are expected to grow at a slower pace in 2012, as domestic appetite moderates and home production rises.

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Post tags: carbon emissions, coal imports, economic growth, Japan
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The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamour of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in grey and yellow air. The US Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighbourhoods and posted the results online.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 milligrams per cubic meter, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to US Environmental Protection Agency standards. The US Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Despite the low readings, many are still suspicious of the numbers reported by authorities. The Guardian adds:

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. In the 24 hours to noon Saturday seven of the Beijing monitoring centre’s hourly figures were “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic metre.

“In all of 2010 and 2011 the US embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1% of the time,” Andrews said. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing centre says it has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to test for PM2.5.

Beijing is not expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality any time soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious”, are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

See also Smog ground more plane in Beijing and City air harmful for another 20-30 years via CDT.

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Post tags: air pollution, air quality, Beijing, smog
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On Jan. 23, Beijing will begin releasing hourly readings of air particulate measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, in an attempt to come clean about the level of pollution that regularly blankets the capital. Pollution is a sensitive subject in China, with state-run media often explaining away the smell of glue and haze so thick it obscures even nearby buildings with the term “fog,” and claiming, unbelievably, that Beijing enjoyed 274 “blue sky days” in 2011. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has shied away from releasing its annual pollution statistics, but it runs a popular Twitter feed measuring the air on an hourly basis.

Environmental photographer Sean Gallagher took all of these photos today, a day the U.S. Embassy’s feed called “hazardous,” which means, among other things, that they recommend children and older adults remain indoors. While the color blue does occasionally feature in the skies above the capital, days like this recur with depressing frequency.

See also Gallagher’s website, the US Embassy’s @BeijingAir twitter feed and Greenpeace’s list of resources for tracking air quality in cities around China and beyond.

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Post tags: air pollution, air quality, Beijing, photography, photos
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The national meteorological centre said the Chinese capital had been hit by thick fog that reduced visibility to as little as 200 metres (650 feet) in some parts of the city, while official data judged air quality to be “good”.

But the US embassy, which has its own pollution measuring system, said on its Twitter feed that the concentration of the smallest, most dangerous particles in the air was “beyond index” for most of the morning.

The US system measures particles in the air of 2.5 micrometers or less, known as PM2.5, considered the most dangerous for people’s health.

Tuesday’s reading on its air quality index, which rates anything over 150 as unhealthy, over 200 as very unhealthy and over 300 as hazardous, breached the upper limit of 500, at which it stops giving figures.

Tensions over Beijing’s air quality rose in December following a string of similarly hazardous days, with residents demonstrating a heightened level of impatience over the government’s official explanation that heavy fog caused the poor conditions. Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, whose official pollution readings of the larger PM10 particles have prompted skepticism, declared air quality to have reached a crisis level even as the China Daily reported on Monday that the amount of smaller and more dangerous PM2.5 had actually decreased over the past ten years. Readings from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, reported hourly via Twitter despite demands from the Chinese government in 2009 to stop doing so, has differed greatly with and challenged the validity of Beijing’s data. 

In response to recent public outcry, Beijing announced plans to publish more detailed air quality data last Friday. From The New York Times: 

Beijing plans to publish hourly air quality reports based on an international standard known as PM 2.5, which measures tiny particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter, according to an announcement on the Web site of the Beijing municipal government. Those are the particles that are considered the most serious health hazard.

Big cities in China, including Beijing, generally publish air quality data that measure particles that are up to 10 microns in diameter. Using that standard has allowed Beijing to record more than 250 “blue sky days” during each of the past two years.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection also said early Saturday that monitoring pollution levels using the PM 2.5 standard would be included in a newly amended draft of national air quality standards, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

Beijing’s air monitors have collected PM2.5 readings for the past five years, though the government never officially published any of the data. Now, in addition to Beijing, other Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing have also indicated intentions to begin publishing PM2.5 statistics this year. And while an expert warned the Guardian that there would be no quick remedy for the air quality in Beijing and elsewhere in China, Hong Kong-based journalist Frank Ching praised the announcement in The Globe and Mail today:

This is a huge victory not just for the U.S. embassy but for the Chinese people – a victory for openness, for transparency, for access to information and, most important, for public accountability over bureaucracy, for putting the health of the people over the face of government officials.

It’s natural for people to want information that affects their well-being. They will want that from any source, foreign or local. Of course, it would best if the Chinese government should supply this information rather than try to suppress it.

In principle, the more information that can be made available, the better. And a government that allows a free flow of information is a government that demonstrates confidence.

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Post tags: air pollution, air quality, Beijing, Chongqing, Environmental Protection Bureau, flight delays, PM2.5, Shanghai, smog, Tianjin, U.S. embassy
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