乐鱼 体育

A Peek Inside This Issue

Our lead feature article author, Russell Sticklor, presents an extensive piece on what I have long considered the 鈥渂lack box鈥� of China鈥檚 energy-water nexus challenge, namely the energy footprint of cleaning, treating, and transporting water to quench the thirst of cities in China鈥檚 dry north. Iris Cheng and Li Shuo look at the water-energy-urban topic from a different angle, specifically examining how the effort to protect east coast cities from the crushing smog is pushing more coal development to China鈥檚 ecologically vulnerable west. As a result, coal鈥檚 expansion is threatening water resource availability in China鈥檚 north. In his feature box, Al Scott sees promise for lowering coal鈥檚 environmental impact through expanding U.S.-China cleaner coal cooperation.

Many of our commentaries and boxes focus on China鈥檚 massive urbanization鈥攆rom Zhongjie Lin鈥檚 article on the new 鈥淣ew Town鈥� movement in China to discussions of China鈥檚 perhaps not sufficiently green eco-cities (Cecilia Han Springer) to the Global Environment Facility鈥檚 sustainable city projects in China (Xiaomei Tan). Han Cheng ponders whether expansion of natural gas can deliver cleaner air for Chinese cities, while other authors discuss the potential of city-to-city cooperation between Wuxi and D眉sseldorf (Olivia Boyd) and U.S.鈥揅hina mayoral exchanges (Xiaobing Liu) to move Chinese cities onto a greener path. Ella Chou relates fascinating stories on China鈥檚 emerging green entrepreneurs to address pollution issues in cities and beyond. In a unique twist to our urbanization theme, Fred Gale and Dinghuan Hu talk about how the trend of 鈥渦rbanizing鈥� China鈥檚 pigs is opening up innovative ventures that could make the country鈥檚 pork industry less polluting and safer. Shiming Yang relates an insightful case of how the city of Foshan has wrestled with reducing pollution from its giant ceramics industries. As Chinese urbanites increasingly mistrust the quality of their water supply they turn to bottled water. Abigail Barnes looks at this trend and discusses the contamination scandals and growing environmental footprint of China鈥檚 bottled water industry.

The China Environment Series has long focused on important developments in environmental civil society in China. Thus, for this issue, we invited Yanmei Lin and Shaobo Hu to help us understand whether the provisions for public interest lawsuits in the amended Civil Procedure Law have empowered environmental NGOs in their fight against pollution. Katie Walsh discusses how NGOs and citizens also have more opportunities to improve environmental governance through an improving environmental impact assessment system. Tara Sun Vanacore鈥檚 feature box looks at the little-explored angle of youth鈥檚 involvement in China鈥檚 environmental movement.

This issue鈥檚 Spotlights on NGO Activism in China include some great work being done by the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) to bring U.S. and Chinese provinces together on climate cooperation. Former CEF research assistant Siqi Han helped the GEI authors (Caroline Jo, Qingchan Yu, & Christopher Dunn) create an infographic鈥擳he Power Couple鈥攖o summarize the low-carbon partnership they brokered between California and Guangdong. Greenpeace China contributes a story demonstrating its staff鈥檚 considerable patience and persistence in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles to install rooftop solar panels on top of their office building. Emissions from China鈥檚 growing car fleet becoming a dominant source of smog in China鈥檚 cities have underscored the importance of vehicle rating system tools like the one iCET has developed.