China quake damage even worse than we thought

HaoHao This

Posted on May 15, 2008 
Filed Under Activism and Awareness
Posted by Erica Schlaikjer | Leave a Comment

(Image via BBC News)

More than 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that devastated parts of China on Monday, state media say.

The warning came after the government confirmed the death toll had risen to 19,500, as rescue efforts continue to search for thousands still trapped.

About 10 million people across Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake, the media said.

 confirmed the death toll had risen to 19,500, as rescue efforts continue to search for thousands still trapped.

About 10 million people across Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake, the media said.

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I received an email from the Chinese Internet Research listserv, too. Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of GlobalVoicesOnline.org and blogger at RConversation.com, encourages everyone to make donations for earthquake relief.

As the Chinese people deal with the trauma of the worst earthquake
since Tangshan, it is time for our community - many if not most of
whom have built livelihoods based on our China experience and
knowledge - to help out.

Please make a public pledge of your support for the Chinese people by
going to this link on Pledgebank:
http://www.pledgebank.com/chinaquake

After making your pledge, please go right away to one of the websites
linked on the site (or to some other charity of your choice) and make
a donation. If you would like to suggest other websites where people
can donate online to the Chinese quake victims, please click on the
“comments” section and post the web link and/or any other information
you’d like others to know concerning donations.

Feel free to forward this email to anybody you want.

Thanks.
Rebecca

Rebecca MacKinnon
Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Ctr.
University of Hong Kong (http://jmsc.hku.hk)
E-mail: rmack@hku.hk | Tel: +852-2219-4005
Blog: RConversation.com
Co-founder: GlobalVoicesOnline.org
“The world is talking. Are you listening?”

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Also, the American Chamber in Shanghai posted some more information on how to make donations. Click here.

=====

See my previous post here about more disaster relief organizations that need your help.

 

 

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The environmental toll of the China earthquake?

HaoHao This

Posted on May 13, 2008 
Filed Under Events
Posted by Erica Schlaikjer | 1 Comment

First of all, I hope you and all your loved ones are OK.

If you’re reading this to find out how to help with relief efforts, I suggest the following websites:

Please leave more suggestions in the comments below. Thank you.

The BBC says an estimated 60,000 people are still missing in the wake of the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 12,000 people in Sichuan province on Monday afternoon.

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We all know the human toll of this catastrophe is overwhelming. Does anyone know what the environmental damage has been? I heard about about an ammonia leak from a chemical plant in Shifang. The good news is, at least…

China’s giant pandas are believed to be safe after Monday’s earthquake, but concern is growing over how they will get their next meals.

Authorities confirmed Tuesday that captive animals in two of China’s major panda reserves were alive, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center in southwest Sichuan province is home to about 86 giant pandas, who were reported safe Tuesday.

Staff and critters at neighboring Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center were also reported safe, according to a spokesperson for the Atlanta Zoo, which has two pandas on loan from the wildlife reserve.

Concern arose in the international wildlife community over damage to the animals’ habitat, as authorities continued assessing the scope of damage in the Sichuan province.

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Nat Geo goes ‘inside the dragon’

HaoHao This

Posted on May 12, 2008 
Filed Under Environment, News and Media
Posted by Erica Schlaikjer | 1 Comment

(Image via National Geographic)

The May issue of National Geographic is devoted entirely to China.

“Inside the Dragon,” as it’s called, covers a variety of topics, from the Olympic Games architecture boom to the dismal state of the Yellow River.

The Yellow River story, titled “Bitter Waters” by Brook Larmer, shines light on the urgency of the pollution crisis in China’s legendary waterway.

Few waterways capture the soul of a nation more deeply than the Yellow, or the Huang, as it’s known in China. It is to China what the Nile is to Egypt: the cradle of civilization, a symbol of enduring glory, a force of nature both feared and revered. From its mystical source in the 14,000-foot Tibetan highlands, the river sweeps across the northern plains where China’s original inhabitants first learned to till and irrigate, to make porcelain and gunpowder, to build and bury imperial dynasties. But today, what the Chinese call the Mother River is dying. Stained with pollution, tainted with sewage, crowded with ill-conceived dams, it dwindles at its mouth to a lifeless trickle. There were many days during the 1990s that the river failed to reach the sea at all.

The demise of the legendary river is a tragedy whose consequences extend far beyond the more than 150 million people it sustains. The Yellow’s plight also illuminates the dark side of China’s economic miracle, an environmental crisis that has led to a shortage of the one resource no nation can live without: water.

There are other contributions by famous writers, including a piece on China’s emerging middle class by Leslie Chang, a story about the vanishing Dong minority in Guizhou Village by Amy Tan, and ruminations about China’s future by Peter Hessler. And, of course, stunning photography.

And I got a good tip from Marilyn Terrell, chief researcher from National Geographic Traveler:

The online edition has two stories from the archives of NatGeo that don’t appear in the print edition: a 1955 story by Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian soldier who escaped a British POW camp in India during WWII and hiked over the Himalayas to Tibet, and became tutor to the young Dalai Lama.

and a 1971 story by Canadian Audrey Topping who attended college in China before Mao’s revolution, then returned years later to find the country transformed in many ways.

The stories are rich, engaging and informative. If you can’t get your hands on the print edition, no worries — the online version is rich in multimedia and interactive tools. And there’s even a “How to Help” section, in line with the publication’s mission to “inspire people to care about the planet.”

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Whoa, baby, organic clothes in China!

HaoHao This

Posted on May 9, 2008 
Filed Under Business, Social Entrepreneurship
Posted by Sophia Mendelsohn | Leave a Comment

(Image via BlogGreen)

Chinese products have been called “toxic” and created mass consumer unease recently, so China is not the obvious place to start looking for organic baby clothes. Still, with the population’s buying power and manufacturing capacity, baby clothes could be one of the most important markets for China’s economy. Sherry Poon, founder and owner of wobabybasics, a company that makes and sells organic clothes in Shanghai, is aiming to prove that “Made in China” can be organic, and she aims to spread a little style and love in the process. (The company was recently featured at the recent EcoFair in Shanghai.)

Organic cotton means that its seeds haven’t been genetically modified or treated with pesticides and that it is grown without the use of chemical toxins, which can be harmful, especially to kids. Finding cotton made without all the mainstream chemicals and pesticides is a difficult task in China. When Poon started her company, she looked for factories and suppliers around Shanghai to “lower the embodied energy of the product” (or use less energy trucking the stuff around). But in manufacturing, sometimes you have to go a little farther than home to find the right raw material.

All the companies would tell me that their cotton fabrics were all organic…it would seem obvious that cotton fabric was all natural. However, cotton farming and textile production is riddled with toxic chemicals, rendering their seemingly inert fiber to be highly toxic and potentially harmful for users. Some companies were able to produce certificates for their organic fabrics. When two of the certificates were absolutely identical and did not check out with the certification board, my optimism dimmed a little.

wobabybasics ended up as a Canadian-owned company contracting with a Danish clothing factory, selling to mostly Western consumers. Poon wanted to work with Chinese suppliers but found they were “still struggling to find their place in the market and are concerned about making profits.” Well, aren’t all businesses? China is as good a place as any–in fact, maybe better–to turn the manufacturing of a niche product into a profitable mainstream business. Poon says recently there has been an increase in suppliers carrying “certified organic and eco fabrics.” Chinese producers are understandably responding to the market as it stands now, and we haven’t given them the noise they need to go totally organic yet.

China is not the only one slow to take up more environmentally conscious products. Like most people selling green concepts, Poon says customers will base their purchasing decisions on performance and design before environmental factors:

…clients are more inclined to purchase clothes they find attractive rather than because it is organic. The fact that the products are organic and ethically made are just a bonus.

Learn more about that type of “bonus” by checking out these other cool businesses in China: Shokay (a luxury fabric line) and Mei Xiang Cheese Factory (an artisan cheese social enterprise). Both unique initiatives, supported by Ventures in Development, aim to capitalize on China’s abundant yak population in a sustainable way.


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