July 31, 2009

来自中外对话及环球中国环境专家协会

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from chinadialogue and PACE

A court in Guizhou Province has accepted China’s first environmental lawsuit against a government agency, The China Perspective reported. The All-China Environment Federation sued Qingzhen’s land and resources authority for granting a permit for an ice-cream workshop said to threaten ecosystems near scenic Baihua Lake.

China’s National Energy Bureau says 7,467 small-scale coal-power generating units have been shut down since 2006 as part of a drive to make the coal industry more efficient, according to China-CBN.com.

The three biggest power companies in China -- Huaneng, Datang and Guodian -- produced more greenhouse-gas emissions last year than the whole of Britain, The Guardian said, citing a Greenpeace China report.

A protest over pollution problems caused by a chemical plant escalated in Zhentou Township in Hunan Province, Xinhua reported. Villagers are demanding health care and compensation for crops damaged by heavy metals.

A Chinese environmental NGO, the Chongqing Green Volunteers Union, has asked the environmental protection ministry to scrap the two-stage evaluation system for new hydroelectric projects, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

China’s largest desert lake – Hong Jian Nao -- is still shrinking as a result of climate change and human activities, according to Xinhua. Situated in Shaanxi Province, the wetland area is the habitat of more than 20 species of rare birds.

A Chinese drainage-canal project on the Argun River has drawn complaints from Russia, which says the work may harm the ecosystem along the countries’ border, Reuters reported.

Contaminated drinking water has made more than 2,600 people ill in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, Xinhua said.

While setting no firm goals, the United States and China signed a memorandum of understanding, promising more cooperation on climate change, energy and the environment, according to Reuters.

China concluded an agreement with Ecuador to buy US$1 billion worth of crude over the next two years, Hexun.com said.

As its population ages, Shanghai is urging eligible couples to have a second child, The Guardian reported.

www.pacechina.net

July 29, 2009

来自世界各地资讯

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from across the world

Climate scientists warned that the current Middle Eastern drought may be permanent and that the Fertile Crescent may disappear in this century, according to New Scientist. The Mesopotamian “cradle of civilisation” appears to be returning to desert.

Earth is experiencing its “sixth great extinction event”, with disease and human activity devastating vulnerable species, The Guardian reported, citing a major review by conservationists. Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands may become extinction hot spots.

Emphasing a commitment to addressing climate change in Asia, the United States held an unprecedented meeting with countries of the lower Mekong River basin, said Agence France-Presse.

Aymara Indians living high in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia fear for their future in a warming world as they see glaciers melt and the snow line rise, the BBC reported.

A coal-fired power station in Poland was identified by the Sandbag Climate Campaign as the single largest producer of carbon emissions in the European Union, said The Guardian.

Monaco has put forward a draft proposal to add Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna to the United Nations list of the world’s most endangered species, according to Agence France-Presse.

Scientists say more than two million people living on the banks of Lake Kivu in central Africa risk asphyxiation by gases trapped beneath the lake’s surface, The Guardian reported.

The French government is set to consider taxing carbon emissions, Agence France-Presse said, after an expert panel recommended the tax.

Villagers in Cameroon are taking antelope meat away from lions, the BBC quoted scientists as saying. Conservationists fear the practice could further threaten the number of lions in the country.

New research by international scientists backs the United Nations climate panel in saying that global warming will raise sea levels by centimetres rather than metres in this century, Agence France-Presse reported.

The European Commission set new eco-design rules for industrial motors, television sets, refrigerators and other domestic appliances, Reuters said.

July 24, 2009

来自中外对话及环球中国环境专家协会

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from chinadialogue and PACE

China’s environmental protection ministry has blacklisted eight cities for using outdated sulphur-removal processes at municipal sewage treatment plants and five power plants for fabricating smoke-gas monitoring data, Xinhua reported.

Scientists question whether the railway across the unstable soil of the Tibetan Plateau will survive as it is or require major reconstruction, Scientific American said. The Tibetan region is among the fastest warming – and fastest melting – areas in the world.

China has launched an unprecedented and long-awaited plan to offer subsidies for solar-power projects, Reuters reported. Efforts to boost the sector could draw more than US$10 billion in private funding.

Shenhua, one of China’s largest coal producers, has acquired six farms in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is generally accepted that the mining group is looking for new and easily accessible sources of coal, according to National Business Daily.

Dust clouds generated in China’s north-western Taklimakan Desert in 2007 made more than one full circle around the globe in just 13 days, a Japanese study using a NASA satellite found, Reuters reported.

Farmers are beginning to benefit from the government’s initiative to develop biogas projects in rural China. The goal is to combat pollution and improve living conditions, China Daily said.

Many Chinese wind farms are running well below expected capacity, according to a report released by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, according to the Economic Observer Online.

A new report on China’s master plan for recycling of product packaging has been published, paving the way for the government to introduce strict new legislation for the industry, said Recycling Portal.

Local residents and environmental activists say some village cancer rates are higher than three decades ago in the Huai River basin in east-central China, heavily polluted by industrial effluent, according to Radio Free Asia.

Chinese companies have expressed interest in buying into Canadian potash projects in Africa, said the BNW News Wire.

www.pacechina.net

July 22, 2009

来自世界各地资讯

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from across the world

Small island states urged the United States to lead the way in using the Montreal Protocol to reduce “super greenhouse gases” known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the Environmental News Network reported. HFCs replaced hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which cause both ozone destruction and climate warming.

The American Meteorological Association will endorse research into geoengineering as part of a three-pronged approach to coping with climate change, according to New Scientist.

Fearing that two rivers in Bangladesh could dry up, a Bangladeshi political party asked India to cancel a dam project, Reuters reported.

Asserting that international treaties have been violated, Brazilian authorities demanded that more than 1,400 tonnes of hazardous British waste found in three ports be returned to the United Kingdom, according to the BBC.

The United States interior department released more than 1,000 intelligence images of Arctic ice to help scientists study the impact of climate change in the region, Reuters reported.

Fish have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming, according to a French study cited by Agence France-Presse.

Environmental police in Vietnam seized the frozen body of a young tiger and 11 kilogrammes of tiger bones, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting the Traffic network, which monitors wildlife trading.

Mega-cities may prove to be “surprisingly important” sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, according to New Scientist.

A United Nations protocol requiring governments to publicly identify sites of environmental pollution will come into force in October, the Associated Press said.

The European Union and Canada signed an agreement ending a dispute over genetically modified crops that Canada had taken to the World Trade Organisation, Agence France-Presse reported.

Given the rapid spread of swine flu, the World Health Organisation said it would stop counting individual cases but continue to track the global epidemic, according to the Associated Press.

July 17, 2009

来自中外对话及环球中国环境专家协会

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from chinadialogue and PACE

The first full public lawsuit with an environmental organisation as the main plaintiff will be heard by the Jiangsu Provincial Intermediate People’s Court, China.org.cn reported, citing China Business News. The All-China Environmental Federation is suing Jiangyin Port Container Company over pollution involving iron-ore powder.

China moved a step closer to securing a new source of gas supply when Kazakhstan finished building its segment of a pan-Central Asian gas pipeline designed to address China’s growing energy needs, according to Reuters.

More than 196,000 residents of north-west China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region are facing drinking-water shortages because of a six-month drought, Xinhua said.

Plans for a new joint Chinese-American clean-energy research centre were announced in Beijing by China’s ministry of science and technology and the United States’ department of energy, Xinhua reported.

Prompted by a government initiative to reduce the country’s dependence on coal as an energy source, many Chinese companies are investing heavily in alternative-energy projects, according to China Daily.

Critically endangered Chinese alligators are multiplying in the wild, following their successful reintroduction through a partnership with three American animal parks and China’s state forestry administration, the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

Water prices must rise in line with China’s growing wealth, even if increases put access to water beyond the reach of the poorest people, some experts said at a conference in Beijing, according to China-CBN.com

Industrial enterprises have been warned to take major responsibility for China’s environmental problems, according to a report by CIDR, a leading research centre, Global Times reported.

Chinese scientists monitoring water quality have adapted the principle of the coal-mine canary by using fish to test for pollutants, according to Xinhua. 

Street-level pollution in Hong Kong’s busiest districts has soared over the past four years despite a government campaign to curb vehicle emissions, Agence France-Presse reported.

China has initiated an environmental monitoring system at the Mount Qomolangma (Everest) Nature Reserve, according to China Tibet Online.