China's environmental movement

It’s been tough keeping this blog current with the pace of change taking place here in Beijing. I had started writing this post about two weeks ago alonghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif with a slew of others posts and as I got back to making my final edits, I realized this was woefully out of date. So I’ve had to completely redo this post (I guess that should teach me not to procrastinate too much).

I had been thinking a lot about the state of the environment in China and the attempts that the Chinese government has made to address those consequences, from global warming to polluted rivers, and horrendous air quality. So when I came across this article in the Washington Monthly on I was pleasantly surprised to read that China has been taking proactive steps to develop grow its economy and raise standards of living all while trying to turn back the environmental destruction that has allowed it to do so. China has already passed some strict environmental protection laws and last year started factoring in the cost of environmental degradation as a way of correcting the value of the nation’s GDP. Additionally China has taken dramatic steps to curb its emissions, with its investment in green technologies, and a commitment to have Beijing receive 20% of its electricity from renewable energy sources in time for the 20008 Olympics.

Where China has been lacking is in the enforcement its environmental laws and monitoring of companies that violate those laws. I was intrigued to find out that China has been tolerating and to some extent promoting the growth of a civic engagement on issues of environmental protection. And with that has grown up a burgeoning environmental movement where the people are allowed to criticize the government in a watch dog role. The balance has been in making sure this doesn’t spill over into greater calls for human rights, or any challenge to the current power structure. Though it looks like the limits of China’s openness to environmental criticism are being tested. I recently read that one of China’s eminent environmentalists was taken into custody…so much for openness. That and China has put a hold on its environmental audit for this year and no plans have been released for when and or if the program will continue. So the skeptics out there certainly have much cause to wonder if in fact China is committed to taking the steps necessary to curb its environmental destruction. I guess only time will tell if the calls for greater attention to the environment are merely window dressing, or if the recent snafus are just growing pains as China learns to deal with its environmental problems.