Half of China's water polluted and undrinkable: study

Reuters via Environmental News Network reports on China's polluted water supplies where more than half is undrinkable and one quarter unsuitable for industrial use.

Inspectors from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection tested water samples from the country's major rivers and lakes in the first half of the year and declared just 49.3 percent to be safe for drinking, up from 48 percent last year, the ministry said in a notice posted on its website (www.mep.gov.cn).

Despite tougher regulations over the last decade, the ministry has struggled to rein in the thousands of small paper mills, cement factories and chemical plants discharging industrial waste directly into the country's waterways, and the overuse of fertilizers has also left large sections of China's lakes and rivers choking with algae.

Read the full story: Pollution makes quarter of China water unusable

Photo from My Health Beijing

Global search for temp panda handlers

Agence France-Press reports on the Chinese panda center's search for six temporary panda handlers.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Research Base in the southwest of China says it will have a worldwide contest to pick six panda enthusiasts who will then help look after the black and white mammals for a month. The winners will get to blog their experiences and bring awareness to the pandas' plight.

Huang Xiangming, head of the animal management department at the base, says that when it first opened in 1987, the centre only had six pandas, rescued starving from the wild. It now counts 84 permanent residents.

He says panda keepers are especially needed at times of mating in spring and birthing, which starts during the summer. These rituals are vital, as the animals' notoriously low libido has frustrated efforts to boost their numbers.

Details on the search have not yet been released.

Read the full story: China launches global search for panda keepers

Photo from France 24

China water pollution twice as bad as claimed

Environmental News Network reports that China's water pollution levels are actually twice as bad as previously thought.

A new Chinese government survey of the country's environmental problems has shown water pollution levels in 2007 were more than twice the government's official estimate, largely because agricultural waste was ignored.

The data, presented by Vice Environment Protection Minister Zhang Lijun, revives persistent questions about the quality of Chinese official statistics and the effectiveness of a government push for cleaner growth after decades of unbridled expansion.

Read the full story: Water pollution in China worse than reported

Photo from ENN

Panda's exam could help others

Reuters reports on the condition of Washington D.C. National Zoo panda Tai Shan; whose examination could help diagnose and treat other pandas worldwide. Tai Shan, almost 4-years-old, lost 30 pounds last summer from irritated intestines and veterinarians needed to do a follow-up exam. Tai Shan is the only offspring of pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian on loan from China.

Watch the report below:

China's first national park

National Parks Traveler reports on the first recognized national park in China.

The Heilongjiang Tangwanghe National Park, which is a 49,000 acre area in the northeast, was a heavily logged forest that has lost over 93 percent of its trees since 1948.

But now according to China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and National Tourism Administration, "'This region is home to the most intact and typical virgin Korean Pine forest in Asia, as well as more than 100 rare species of trees such as Dragon Spruce and Faber's Fir.'"

China already has 2,500 nature reserves, scenic and historic areas.

Read the full story: China moves to designate its first national park

China's pollution rate to double by 2030, cites study

Environmental News Network reports on the study showing the doubling of Chinese greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that without serious curbs on the billions of tons of carbon dioxide China emits each year, the nation could match the amount the United States emits by 2020.

In 2007, the United States was still the world's number one emitter of greenhouse gases at 7.2 billion tons, compared to China's 5.1 billion tons.

Read the full story: China warns of huge rise in emissions

Australian cyclist says "Free Tibet"

Ecotravel News has previously written about the ethical and environmental responsibility travelers have when visiting countries with repressive regimes. And we were especially disappointed in China's violent response to Tibetan protesters last March.

So we were happy to see on Phayul.com that the Australia cycling star Cadel Evans has "vocalized his opinion on the situation in Tibet."

Phayul writes that Evans compared the treatment of Tibetans by Han Chinese as similar to Aborigines by whites in Australia.

The Olympic Committee protocols make any kind of political protest during the Games illegal.

Read the full story: Cyclist Cadel Evans speaks out on Tibet as he leaves Beijing

Beijing stops migrant recyclers during Olympics

Reuters reports that Beijing has stopped migrant recyclers from doing business during the Olympics.

Beijing leaders claim that the migrant workers, who trade recycling for a living, carry infectious diseases and don't want them to infect visitors to the games.

Watch the report:

Chinese plastic bag ban: a success

Environmental News Network reports that China's almost complete ban on plastic bags - consumers can still purchase thicker plastic bags - is a success.

Consumers have easily adapted by bringing their own bags and some have even gone back to using traditional baskets.

The ban makes it illegal for shops to hand out free plastic bags to shoppers.

"China's central government dealt this heavy blow to plastic bags out of concern for the environment and a desire for greater energy savings. People in China use up to 3 billion plastic bags daily and dispose of more than 3 million tons of them annually. Most of the carriers end up in unofficial dumping sites, landfills, or the environment. Urban dumping centers and open fields alongside railways and expressways are littered with the discarded bags, mostly whitish ultra-thin varieties. Such scenes have generated a special term in China: "the white pollution."

Read the full story: China watch: plastic bag ban trumps market and consumer efforts

Beijing pollution still high, now threatens Olympics events

Reuters reports that although the Beijing Olympics are only two months away, the threat of still present and high air pollution levels could cause delays in endurance events like the marathon:

Asia and global warming

China and India are both high-population and fast-emerging economies that are also altering their climates drastically by emitting some of the highest amounts of carbon dioxide worldwide.

The Economist reports how the effect of these greenhouse gases is changing the climate, melting the Himalayan glaciers and shifting weather patterns - all things that are affecting the health and livelihoods of their citizens. Both countries are realizing their contributions to the problem and are beginning to work on solutions.

Read the full story: Melting Asia

Tiger bone wine - illegal but still for sale

The BBC reports that tiger bone wine - made with endangered tiger carcasses - is still being sold illegally at animal parks in China.

The wine, sold in tiger-shaped vessels like the one pictured above, is made by soaking dead tiger bodies in rice wine. Benefits to the drinker's health are the reasons for drinking the brew.

The British Environmental Investigation Agency said advertisements for the illegal drink were shown blatantly in the parks and visitors were openly solicited to buy it.

Read the full story: Chinese parks sell 'tiger wine'

Opinion about Tibetan protests and China travel

Ecotravel News is deeply disturbed by China's violent reaction to the widespread Tibetan protests. Travelling ethically and environmentally is always something we at Ecotravel News try to write about and take into consideration.

We've read a lot of travel stories about whether it's a good idea to visit countries with repressive regimes like Cuba or Myanmar, but China never gets put in that list.

But perhaps now it should.

China has a horrible environmental record and its treatment of fellow citizens - as these past few weeks have shown - is almost as bad. Chinese cities are choked with such bad air pollution that permanent grey skies are the norm. The countryside is being exploited with major industrial factories so there are few pristine areas left. The Chinese ethnic majority, the Han, are the ones who control the government and insert their presence and influence around the world. The areas of traditional Tibetan lands in China were still relatively untouched by pollution and industry, but with the advent of the new train to Lhasa, exploitation by the Han is now enabled. Tibetans have been repressed by China since they were "liberated" and "taken over" and had their land swallowed up in 1959. And now that monks, the forbearers of peace and harmony are being brutally killed by the repressive regime, foreign travelers should question their visit.

A good resource on all the latest happenings about all things Tibet is Phayul.com. They have stories that you won't see in western media and have graphic pictures and video. Decide for yourself if it is ethical to enrich a communist government that is trying its hardest to cover-up everything bad that they think will harm their summer Olympic event.

Ecotravel News says don't go.

Road trip across Asia, backed by U.N. under guise of promoting road safety

The Driving Home Road Safety 2007 project was the brainchild of two middle-aged Britons who wanted an excuse to travel the new interconnecting Asia Highway roads all the way from Tokyo to London. It was touted as:

"an epic journey along the newly completed Asia-Pacific Highway bringing world attention to road safety awareness and raising money to help save children from deaths and injury on the roads."

The United Nations jumped on board, eager for a way to promote their Make Roads Safe and Road Safety is no Accident campaigns whose purpose are "to help reduce the shocking toll of road-related injuries and fatalities, particularly in developing nations."

The car driven across the countries was a sponsored Aston Martin with advertising labels all over its exterior. The most profound of these stickers were from the U.N. projects in bold white type: "Make Roads Safe" and "Road Safety is no Accident." Since most of the countries they drove through were non-English speaking and - to say politely - developing , most of the people who saw the car probably had no idea what it was all about.

So promoting road safety is one thing, but doing it in a car is environmentally irresponsible. Especially since the number of vehicles in a huge polluting nation such as China are growing rapidly.

The explosion of car use in China is a major environmental concern. According to The Ecologist, just over 15 years ago there were about 1 million vehicles in use. This has risen to 12 million in 2005; and China estimates that by 2020 there will be some 140 million cars in use. Still, right now, that turns out to be about eight car users per 1,000 people; in the U.S. there are 950 cars per 1,000.

Unfortunately because of the new interconnecting road system, this explosion of vehicles can now do just what these two men did, drive around and pollute the environment. To really make the world "safe" the big picture of health and environmental protection needs to be addressed. A flashy campaign to let two thrill-seeking men drive through various developing Asian nations is just a ruse to make people feel good about themselves under the pretense of doing the good for others. These guys probably arose more interest in driving and possessing a car than anything about being so-called safe.

Read the complete diary: Driving Home Road Safety 2007

Lhasa train excites tourists, but with no mention of environmental or cultural controversies

LA Times travel writer Susan Spano recently made a trip on the new-ish train connecting Beijing and Lhasa. Unfortunately it was more about her own personal observations rather than any insight into the environmental and cultural problems that the train line created. Mostly it was "white person in China" drivel such as:

"When it was time to eat, we filed into the dining car for an unappetizing meal served on tin plates: potatoes, cabbage, greens, a slice of Spam, half a hard-boiled egg and rice."

She did mention one line about the controversy of the train exploiting the mineral riches of "Tibet," but without doing the homework of what "Tibet" really is. Tibet proper consists of the provinces Kham, Amdo and U-Tsang. What westerners call Tibet is really the Tibetan Autonomous Region, or TAR, predominantly in the U-Tsang area. Kham and Amdo lie in China. When the Chinese government "liberated" the region of Tibet in the 1950s it sliced through the middle of the historical Tibetan area and created the TAR in 1965 for "administrative purposes." The Chinese slaughtered and drove out thousands of Tibetans including the Dalai Lama for their own selfish ruling purposes. Western nations refuse to do anything about the "Tibet situation" because of their own dealings with cheap labor and manufacturing that China represents.

The train to Lhasa has brought cultural and environmental concerns. Firstly, it will bring more of the Han Chinese (the predominant chinese ethnicity) to distill the already distilled Tibetan culture. A major health concern from this is the heightened risk of HIV/AIDS which could blossom under the "frontier-like" conditions created by the railway construction and subsequent tourist industry.

Secondly, the environmental concerns of building and running a train over previously undisturbed natural areas has been addressed by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The embassy released a 2003 report criticizing the Chinese so-called environmental protection during the building process. The protection and health of the natural tundra and native species disturbed during the building of the rail line were of major concern. Another key point was the long-term effects hundreds of travelers will have on the delicate eco-system. Where will the waste and garbage be disposed of? How will the train disturb wildlife's natural migrations? And what will be built to support the tourists at proposed rest stops during the train ride?

Glad to see that for western writers the thrill of the train ride is much more important than what the full cost of the train line really represents.

Read more about the entire region of Tibet: The Government of Tibet in exile
Read the U.S. Embassy report: Environmental protection along the Qinghai-Tibet railway
Read the full LA Times article: Beijing-Lhasa Express the train ride of a lifetime

Stay tuned for more "white person in China" stories from Ms. Spano because the paper touts that luckily she: "will take us behind the scenes in Beijing, from its hutongs to its luxury hotels. She will also explore lesser-known corners of China that are made for the cultural and adventure traveler."