In the lead up to, and in the middle of, the recent Copenhagen discussions the role of China as either the biggest polluter or as the biggest Cleantech investor has been the focal point for many. It is a bipolar focus that has defined many of the discussions on China in the past, and as the recently reviewed debate on whether China is a developed or developing country highlights, it is a condition…
With nearly every analyst report, news column, blogpost, or conference, I usually find myself wondering how that particular voice or medium would achieve the goals of sustainability, and more widely, the more I read... the more I realize we (as a people) need to sit down and work out just what exactly the goal of sustainability is. Is sustainability about green jobs for a district, or about cle…
In the run up to the Olympics, Beijing was perhaps the most active construction site globally. It was a massive concert of cranes and cement that built some of the most advanced event venues, transportation networks, and parks. For many, including myself, it was a process that left little doubt as to where the environment stood, and how often it stood in the way, but a recent presentation on the…
Getting back to the roots of a problem can be a painful process, especially when it is known far in advance that the truth is going to hurt. It is in many ways perhaps the biggest inhibitor to growth, change, and progress around the world, and in China that is no different. When discussing the differences between the US and China's approach to the environmental issues they face , one of the poi…
Submission from - David Sutton PhD, Professor of Ecology The first commandment of economics is: Grow. Grow forever. Companies must get bigger. National economies need to swell by a certain percent each year. People should want more, make more, earn more, spend more - ever more. The first commandment of the Earth is: Enough. Just so much and no more. Just so much soil. Just so much water.…
Last year, I watched perhaps one of the more interesting Poptech videos. It was of Dan Gilbert, a Harvard professor in psychology, on why we as humans have failed to respond in any meaningful way in the face of Global Warming. At the time, I wrote a review for it on Crossroads that elicited some comments from a good friend (and GW skeptic) that made me think about a wider picture of Dan's c…
Recently, when looking to understand the issues of sustainability, I have been less concerned with mpg or SOX, but about populations. Specifically, the fact that in 1950 we were a mere 1.5 billion people.. and now we are 6.7billion. One of the more interesting, and concise documents, I found recently comes from the Population Media Center. Talking points on Population is a release from their me…
In the article Official warns environmental pollution no longer acceptable, I saw the strongest statement to date that officials and agencies are finally understanding the tradoff of full costs between economic growth and the environmnet: Yangzonghai Lake, famous for its springs, was found to contain arsenic in June in the Yuxi City section. A local company named Jinye Industry and Trade Co. Ltd.…
With dozens of cities in China urbanizing all at the same time, and at a pace matched at no time by anyone else, making sure cities are planned and built properly is a must. While the term "urban" can mean different things to different people, municipalities of all sizes are and always have been dynamic centers of activity. Cities offer jobs and prosperity, important social interaction, and…
Jennifer Turner has been the director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center for 16 years where she creates meetings, exchanges and publications focusing on a variety of energy and environmental challenges facing China, particularly on water, energy and green civil society issues. She leads the Wilson Center’s Global Choke Point Initiative, which together with Circle of Blue,…
I just finished reading the 1997 re-release of Vance Packard's book The Hidden Pursuaders, a fascinating book about how through the addition of psychology and sociology, adverting firms were able to become more effective at placing products in the consumer minds. One section focused on how children soaked up advertising, and through this process, the children could become a huge force in the w…
