Environment, Biodiversity & Pollution~
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Wild China – understanding wilderness
Wild China – Toward a greater appreciation of wilderness China is the world’s fourth most biodiverse nation. It has more large carnivore species than any country on earth, equivalent to that of the entire African continent. More people, too, but squeezed into only about a third of the land. China’s mega-biodiversity is due to what Continue reading
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Nature conservation – China’s approach
Ecological redlines – China is undergoing a great experiment — tightly controlled and driven by big data — that it hop es will offer an alternative way of protecting the planet. In an effort that often goes unnoticed, China’s leadership is pushing further to build what Jessica Gordon of the University of California, Berkeley’s Center Continue reading
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Serbia – growing importance of BRI
Serbia’s Green Horizon: The $2.2 Billion Investment from China in a Sustainable Future In a move that signals a transformative wave across the European energy lands, Serbia has announced a monumental $2.2 billion investment commitment from China. This landmark commitment strives to steer Serbia onto the path of renewable energy, setting a new stride toward a sustainable Continue reading
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China to further improve air quality
New action plan to improve China’s air quality, highlights green and low-carbon transformation China’s new action plan to improve its air quality highlights a green and low-carbon transformation and win-win situation for environmental, economic and social benefits, China’s top environmental engineer said on Monday. In November 2022, China was identified as having achieved the world’s Continue reading
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Protect China’s seagrass meadows
China’s threatened seagrass meadows: scientists call for Seagrass Conservation and Restoration Plan Seagrass meadows are crucial coastal habitats that contribute to biodiversity, food security, and climate mitigation. However seagrasses, once common along China’s coastlines, have declined by more than 80% of the seagrass meadows in China’s coastal waters and six seagrass species have disappeared. Even Continue reading
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China enhances agricultural sustainability
China enhances agricultural sustainability and farm incomes while maintaining national crop production on existing croplands though crop switching The Green Revolution of the 1960s brought unprecedented increases in global food supply to meet a rapidly rising demand. However, the promotion of relatively few high-yielding crops and the accompanying input-intensive practices — such as fertilizers, pesticides, Continue reading
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The Dialectics of Ecology: An Introduction
The following is the introduction to John Bellamy Foster, The Dialectics of Ecology: Society and Nature (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2024). All nature is in a perpetual state of flux.… There is nothing clearly defined in nature.… Everything is bound up with everything else. Denis Diderot1 As Harvard ecologist and Marxian theorist Richard Levins observed, “perhaps the Continue reading
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China targets 25% wastewater reuse by 2025
China’s water-scarce cities to reach 25% wastewater reuse by 2025. During the past decades of rapid development in wastewater treatment, China has accomplished the transition of wastewater treatment from underdevelopment to an industrial powerhouse. China accounts for 21% of the world’s population but only has 6% of the world’s freshwater resource, and it also has Continue reading
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China’s marine plastic waste initiative
China’s Blue Circle environmental initiative gives new solution to marine plastic waste. If plastic waste is dumped into the sea, it will gradually break down into microplastics, exerting continuous and permanent adverse impacts on the environment. How can plastic waste be recycled and turned into useful resources? The Blue Circle environmental initiative, a marine plastic Continue reading
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Indonesia wants China water investment
Indonesia invites China to invest in its water infrastructure projects Antara News reported on 11 September 2023 that Indonesia has invited China to invest in water infrastructure projects in Indonesia and in the development of the new national capital (IKN) Nusantara. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the 18th World Water Congress held Continue reading
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Include Forest Fires in Carbon Accounting
Chinese Scientists Call for Global Collaboration to Reduce Carbon Emissions by Preventing Forest Fires. As the UN COP28 Climate Change negotiations are underway in Dubai, countries are taking stock of how much carbon they are emitting into the atmosphere. On Thursday 7 Dec 2023, Chinese scientists published new research that suggests including emissions from forest Continue reading
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Harmony between humanity and nature
Promoting Harmony Between Humanity and Nature in Modernization by Advancing the Beautiful China Initiative. The following article was written by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, and appeared in Qiushi Journal, a bi-monthly journal published by the CPC Central Committee. I. Innovations in Xi Jinping thought on ecological conservation In his speech at the Continue reading
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China’s Environmental Law
China’s system of environmental legislation is established based on the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China that was enacted in 1989. Under this law, other separate laws have been enacted for controlling pollution. Some of these laws are as follows: China updated the Environmental Protection Law in 2015. This was the first Continue reading
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Xi on building eco-civilization
“Several pairs of relations need to be well handled in promoting the construction of ecological civilization.” Ying Xue, on the China Ecological Civilization substack blog, has summarised an important article by Xi Jinping, published on the Qiushi magazine on November 16. Qiushi is run by the CPC central committee. It publishes articles demonstrating policies and guiding the direction Continue reading
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China’s massive leap forward
China’s emissions could peak this year! The following article is from the US. The first paragraph would be at home in any US anti-China rant. But read on, the author shows how the “China bad guy” theme is wearing thin in the face of undeniable facts. China is the climate elephant in the room. It Continue reading
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Plastic pollution under spotlight
About 2,000 delegates from around the world are gathering in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for fresh talks on the landmark international treaty to combat plastic pollution. In December 2018, China’s State Council launched a plan to restrict the production, sale, and use of single-use plastic bags and tableware, and to expand the application of degradable Continue reading
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Nature’s soil seedbanks
A research team of Chinese scientists is investigating the potential for natural soil seedbanks to help plant communities to resist the detrimental impact of environmental disturbance, including climate change. Unlike most other biological groups, plant species can possess dormant life-history stages such as the soil seed bank, which may help plants adapt to environmental changes. Continue reading
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China bolsters Environment Ministry
Photo: Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, China. Reforms strengthen role of China’s Environment Ministry. China Dialogue reports that on 12 October, 2023 a notice was issued outlining changes to the responsibilities of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). The central role of the MEE appears to have been strengthened with the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Continue reading
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The East is red and green
In a recent review of Carlos Martinez’s book The East is Still Red – Chinese socialism in the 21st century, Stefania Fusero provides a detailed summary of the chapter on China’s environmental record (China is building an ecological civilisation), including a discussion of China’s trajectory on ecological issues, its commitment in the last two decades to Continue reading
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Russia halts Japan seafood imports
Russia joins China and suspended all seafood imports from Japan. The ban is due to food contamination fears after the release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The Russian government on Monday (16 October 2023) introduced a temporary ban on imports of seafood from Japan, after Tokyo released treated radioactive water from the Continue reading
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China & Ramsar Wetlands Convention
In November 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at the Opening Ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. He spoke of the historic achievements made in wetlands conservation in China.“We have increased the area of wetlands to 56.35 million hectares, put in place a Continue reading
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China drought cuts hydro output
In major news for China’s electricity system and emissions – and for the world, on 17 July, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that despite overall electricity generation growing 3.8% year-on-year, hydropower output fell by nearly 23% in the first half of 2023 – the largest drop among all electricity sources. Hydro is China’s largest Continue reading
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What are biodiversity offsets ?
What are biodiversity offsets? In recent years, biodiversity offsets and credits have been promoted as one of the key ways to finance nature conservation and support global biodiversity goals.Put simply, “biodiversity offsetting” is a system for placing a value on a habitat, plant or animal, meaning the “credit” or “unit” can be bought or sold Continue reading
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Coconut blankets restore grassland
Blankets made from coconut shells are being used for grassland restoration in South West China’s Sichuan. Grass is successfully sprouting from the ground surface covered by blankets made from coconut shells at the area of the abandoned mines in Ruoergai County of Aba Prefecture, where bedrocks were exposed before. These blankets made from coconut shells Continue reading
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Abundant harvest of giant rice
The abundant harvest of giant rice in Guanxi region could play a key role in ensuring China’s food security. Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the genetics of rice breeding that could lead to a healthier, higher-yield hybrid variety of the grain. Japonica and Indica rice are two widely grown varieties in China, each Continue reading
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China protects the environment
Looking for news and analysis on China and the Environment, China’s Ecological Civilization, the Belt & Road Initiative, and BRICS geopolitics? Visit China Environment Net on the web https://china-environment-net.com/wp Continue reading
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Climate change & China’s croplands
China experienced both extreme heat and “devastating” floods this summer, which had an impact” on food supplies and rice crops. This Carbon Brief article on how climate change is affecting China’s cropland, looks at arable land policies and potential impacts of climate on food security. Official Chinese data shows that at least 1.9m hectares (19,000km2) or 8% of Continue reading
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Fiji says no to Fukushima waste
Fijians say no to dumping Japan’s nuclear wastewater in Pacific. “Keep our Pacific nuclear-free!” Hundreds of Fijian people marched on the streets of Suva, raising their voices strongly against Japan’s dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean Continue reading
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Beijing region air quality improves
Beijing Daily reports: According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, the average number of days with good air quality in the #Beijing–#Tianjin–#Hebei region and its surrounding areas in July this year exceeded 50%. Continue reading
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Endangered fish released to Yangtze
100,000 endangered Chinese sturgeons released into the Yangtze River Continue reading
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Rare photo of white giant panda
23-8-2023 https://www.facebook.com/groups/china.environment.net/posts/6554623941258577/ Continue reading
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China and Mongolia fight sandstorms
Mining and climate change are damaging the grasslands that prevent sandstorms. Can greater cooperation help? Battsengel, 50, lives in the south of Mongolia, in Khanbogd district, Ömnögovi province, just over the border from China’s Inner Mongolia. He has made a living herding livestock since he was 20. But sandstorms of increasing frequency are making things Continue reading
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China’s ‘father of glaciers’
Posted in: China Environment Net on Facebook 7/8/23 These are the first of 4 episodes (up to now) ep1. https://youtu.be/WdgUdpRVh8c (see below) ep2. -> https://english.cas.cn/…/202307/t20230726_333913.shtml ep.3 -> https://english.cas.cn/…/202307/t20230731_334159.shtml ep.4 -> https://english.cas.cn/…/202308/t20230801_334196.shtml Continue reading
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China’s Village Science program
China’s agricultural scientists protect ecology and improve farmers’ income While Lake Erhai has received much attention for its ecological preservation, the Lake basin has also suffered from high pollution, high deposits of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, and low agricultural yields. In the past, the protection efforts for the Erhai Lake were not coordinated Continue reading
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Has ‘eco-collapse’ begun?
Professor José Seoane from the University of Buenos Aires writes: In 2023, different climatic anomalies have been recorded that set new historical records in the tragic progression of climate change at the global level. Thus, in June, the surface temperature in the North Atlantic reached the maximum increase of 1.3 degrees Celsius with respect to Continue reading
China Environment News 