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China’s Waste Import Ban: Dumpster Fire or Opportunity for Change?
In early January of this year, China’s “National Sword” policy banned imports of non-industrial plastic waste. The ban forces exporting countries to find new dumping grounds for their waste, which is...
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Like Water and Oil: Fish as a Geostrategic Resource
Access to and competition over natural resources has been one of the most common triggers for conflict. Throughout the centuries, countries and communities have fought over productive agricultural...
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The People vs. Pollution: Empowering NGOs to Combat Pollution with...
China is four years into its war on pollution, and while the skies over many of its cities are bluer and thousands of polluting industries have been closed, many challenges remain. According to China’s...
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The Crushing Environmental Impact of China’s Cement Industry
China—the world’s fastest-growing economy with the largest population—leads the world in cement production, the critical ingredient that has built China’s mammoth cities, sprawling roads, and other...
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China vs. United States: Competition Over Rare Minerals Ratchets Up
“Historically, resource conflicts have often centered on fuel minerals, like oil. Future resources conflicts may however focus more on competition for non-fuel minerals that enable [modern]...
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Not Practicing What It Preaches: China Invests Heavily in Renewable Energy...
“China can simultaneously be the world’s biggest polluter and the leading developer and employer of clean energy technologies,” said Joanna Lewis, an associate professor of science, technology, and...
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Recycled Water Could Solve Beijing’s Water Woes, But Implementation Falls Short
Huo Chang grows visibly exasperated as he speaks about his city’s water crisis. From his office in Beijing’s largest state-owned environmental investment and service company, China Energy Conservation...
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More than Just a BRI Greenwash: Green Bonds Pushing Climate-Friendly Investment
From the cultural hub of Lahore down to the bustling ports of Karachi, smog is king in Pakistan, with citizens enduring unhealthy air quality for much of the year. The smog, generated mostly by crop...
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China’s Demand for Raw Materials Harms Communities Around the World
The Solomon Islands’ “commercially available forests will be gone in about 15 years” due to deforestation, said Lela Stanley, a Policy Advisor for Global Witness’ Asia Forests team at the Wilson...
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Choke Point Solutions: Can Western China Lower its Coal-Water Risk?
China’s war on pollution and goals to lower carbon emissions are noteworthy as the United States takes a back seat in the global energy transition. Cleaner air and low carbon efforts in China could...
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On Tap: Seeking a Game Changer to Stop China’s River Pollution
In Wuxi, a city 84 miles west of Shanghai, nearly 2 million residents had foul smelling green water coming out of their taps for a week in May 2007. Wuxi sits on the shores of Lake Tai, China’s third...
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China’s Race to Develop Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are revving up in China. As part of the 2018 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, more than one hundred AVs swerved perfect 8’s on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, showcasing Baidu...
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Chinese Solar Shines at Home and on the Road
For solar industry professionals in China, May 31, 2018, is a day that will live in infamy. At the beginning of 2018, Chinese domestic solar developers were riding a high after reaching a record 53 GW...
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Coal Communities Struggle to Diversify
Blanketed by freshly fallen snow, mountains of the Teton Range loomed above as I explored the picturesque town of Jackson, Wyoming. A native Bostonian, I had no experience in the heart of the country,...
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Tapping the Power in China’s Municipal Sludge
In September 2018, the Jinghu District People’s Court in Wuhu, Anhui Province sentenced 12 people from the Pol Shin Fastener Company between four months and six years in prison for committing serious...
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China’s Hollow Villages Undergo a Transformation
As an agricultural engineering professor, I was excited to visit and tour the farm village Houbali, in southwestern Shandong Province. I found myself standing among newly constructed high-rise...
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From Farm to Table to Landfills? Seeking Solutions to China’s Food Waste Dilemma
In a giant building filled with dark and humid rooms, some 2 billion cockroaches are scampering around piles of food. This is not a scene out of a horror film, but an innovative business venture to...
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A Warmer Arctic Presents Challenges and Opportunities
As Arctic ice melts, we can physically see glaciers retreating. But what we can’t yet see is the exact effect climate change will have on the environment, humans, economies, and national security. Less...
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Reclaiming China’s Worn-out Farmland: Don’t Treat Soil Like Dirt
China’s food security is rooted in its soil. Sadly, more than 40 percent of China’s soil is degraded from overuse, erosion, and pollution. The government’s 2014 soil survey revealed that 19 percent of...
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Not Too Big—Not Too Small—Just Right: Sand Bioreactor Wastewater Treatment in...
One year after the Sichuan earthquake, while visiting villages near Wenchuan, I asked local officials planning reconstruction about their plans for wastewater treatment. As an agricultural engineering...
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