Almost half of world’s worst polluted places are in Asia

The Blacksmith Institute recently announced their annual review of the most polluted places in the world, all with severe human health risks . Download their report to read more details on each site. Almost half of the sites are located in Asia. In the Top Ten list, 4 locations are in Asia: Read more

China is addicted to growth

The New York Times has published a special series, Choking on Growth, to examine China’s environment and the challenges it faces as it grows economically. The series include articles, audio slide shows, videos and graphic maps. In the article, As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes, Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley pointed out that China’s environmental problems are causing health and political problems. The problems arise out of the drive for increasing economic growth. Although they acknowledged that developed countries go through an initial phase of environmental degradation before starting to clean up their act, China’s environmental degradation is happening at an unprecedented rate such that it poses great challenges to the government and the public. Read more

Who is Pan Yue?

We would describe Pan Yue as the new green voice of China while UK magazine, New Statesman, calls him “Person of the Year” and Chinese newspaper, Southern Weekend, calls him “Hurricane Pan”. Pan Yue is an outspoken person who speaks and debates on environmental issues, and who also happens to be the Vice Minister of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration, the country’s environmental watchdog. He has working experience as a journalist and editor before becoming a government official. Read more