Books
02.10.15

The People’s Republic of Chemicals

Maverick environmental writers William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs follow up their acclaimed Smogtown with a provocative examination of China’s ecological calamity already imperiling a warming planet. Toxic smog most people figured was obsolete needlessly kills as many as died in the 9/11 attacks every day, while sometimes Grand Canyon-sized drifts of industrial particles aloft on the winds rain down ozone and waterway-poisoning mercury in America.

Caixin Media
11.24.14

At Factory Waste Ponds, Fumes Choke Fantasies

Deep in the Tengger Desert, near a community of cattle herders about 700 kilometers west of Beijing, pipes from a complex of coal processing and chemical factories once spewed slimy wastewater into six ponds.

The "evaporation ponds" were...

Viewpoint
11.21.14

What Will Make the U.S.-China Climate Deal Work

Mark Hertsgaard

Nearly everyone agrees that the U.S.-China climate announcement is a big deal, but most observers have...

Viewpoint
11.14.14

The Domestic Politics of the U.S.-China Climate Change Announcement

Ann Carlson & Alex Wang

The news from Beijing this week that the U.S. and China are committing to ambitious goals on climate change is, we think, monumental. No two countries are more important to tackling the problem than the largest carbon emitter over the past two...

Caixin Media
10.27.14

Rise and Fall of a Coal Boomtown

Some 187 kilometers west of Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi, the city of Luliang is located on the dry and gullied Loess Plateau in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River.

The city, which covers 21,143 square...

Environment
06.27.14

Germany’s Renewables Paradox a Warning Sign for China

 from chinadialogue

From the hay field behind his house, Gunter Jurischka points out the solar panels glittering from the town’s rooftops and the towering wind turbines spinning lazily on the horizon.

Thanks to Germany’s now famous...

Environment
02.12.14

China Unlikely to Reduce Coal Use in the Next Decade

 from chinadialogue

Coal will account for no less than sixty percent of China’s total energy use in the next decade, said Zheng Xinye, an energy economist at Renmin University. Currently, coal ...

Environment
12.12.13

China’s Coal Industry at a Crossroads

 from chinadialogue

Times are getting rough for Wang Guangchun, a ten-year veteran sales manager of a state-owned coal company.

“During the golden era of the past, clients came to find me,” Wang said. “Starting last year, we had to go looking for them.”...

Environment
09.23.13

Chinese Coal Demand to Peak by 2020

 from chinadialogue

Over the last decade, predicting the future of global energy markets has centered more or less on what people thought China was going to do. Analysts and researchers have since assumed that...

Environment
08.09.13

Beijing is Trapped in its Polluted Neighborhood

 from chinadialogue

In 2011, approximately 9,900 premature deaths in China are estimated to have been due to pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection recently released a pollution ranking of seventy-four cities over the first three months of the year. Of...

Caixin Media
08.05.13

County in Shaanxi in a Deep Hole as Mining Bubble Pops

A financial crisis triggered by falling coal prices is brewing in Shenmu County, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.

Construction projects have been halted, universal health care has run into payment problems and many private bankers...

Thirsty Coal 2: Shenhua’s Water Grab

Greenpeace

This investigation report is a follow-up to the 2012 Greenpeace and the China Academy of Sciences joint study: “Thirsty Coal: A Water Crisis Exacerbated By China’s New Mega Coal Bases.” In this report, we focus on the most controversial part of...

Environment
07.08.13

The Water Challenge Facing China’s Coal and Power Sector Is “Inescapable”

 from chinadialogue

It is an inescapable truth that China needs coal—and that coal needs water. The coal industry, from mining to power generation and coal-to-chemicals, accounts for one-sixth of China’s water withdrawals. This is not sustainable and in some areas...

Environment
05.28.13

How China Can Kick-start Carbon Capture and Storage

 from chinadialogue

China’s estimated total carbon dioxide emissions reached 25 percent of global emissions in 2011 and they continue to grow rapidly—so...

Environment
02.14.13

A Progress Report on U.S.-China Energy & Climate Change Cooperation

Leah Thompson

In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama committed to confronting climate change, stating, “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead...

Environment
01.23.13

U.S. Cities Suffer Impact of Downwind Chinese Air Pollution

 from chinadialogue

Around 9,000 feet up, on a remote mountaintop in the state of Oregon, a group of researchers are on the lookout. It is not planes or wildlife they are tracking but pollution clouds.

The monitoring site is run by Dan Jaffe, professor of...

Earthbound China
12.17.12

Unlikely Harvest

Leah Thompson

A little over month ago, I found myself traveling to rural Anhui province. Coal+Ice, the documentary photography exhibition I had produced for Asia Society, had been invited...

Cleaning Up Coal

That explosive increase in coal use came not from the developed world, where demand is plateauing, but from the developing world, where the fuel remains the cheapest, most reliable source of electricity. This year, the market in globally traded...

Caixin Media
07.06.12

Powering Down Coal-Fired Economic Expansion

Slowing nationwide power demand and coal consumption, twin barometers for economic growth, suggest the Chinese economy may be sailing into the doldrums while at the same time changing its course.

Electricity use in May rose a relatively...

Can China's Rust Belt Reinvent Itself?

To understand this industrial Chinese city's past, begin with the smoldering crater on the south side of town, an open-pit coal mine as wide as Manhattan and deeper than the height of the Chrysler Building. Known as Haizhou, or "Sea State," it is...

Environment
05.24.12

Unplugging from China

 from chinadialogue

Apparent preparations by US energy giant AES Corporation to withdraw from China have raised eyebrows lately. Earlier this year, it emerged that the firm—one of the world’s biggest independent power generators—had engaged an investment bank to...

The NYRB China Archive
10.29.09

China’s Boom: The Dark Side in Photos

Orville Schell
from New York Review of Books

I have seen some woeful scenes of industrial apocalypse and pollution in my travels throughout China, but there are very few images that remain vividly in my mind. This is why the photographs of Lu Guang are so important. A fearless documentary...

NRDC Strives to Minimize the Toll From Coal in China

Natural Resources Defense Council

NRDC is working with China to reduce this reliance on coal—and cut down on coal's accompanying health and safety hazards—by aggressively targeting energy efficiency and renewable energy goals, and promoting coal gasification with carbon capture...

Coal in a Changing Climate

Natural Resources Defense Council

The current coal fuel cycle is among the most destructive activities on earth, placing an unacceptable burden on public health and the environment. There is no such thing as “clean coal.” As the two largest coal consumers, the United States and...

Demand-Side Management in China

Natural Resources Defense Council

A major challenge for China’s policy makers is to determine how best to provide the necessary energy to fuel China’s extraordinary economic growth. The traditional approach has been to rely on increasing the supply of conventional energy...

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