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| Photo courtesy of the EPA |
I
believe, without question, we have a moral obligation to conserve and preserve
the environment for future generations.
Similar to the way criminals are forced to compensate for their actions,
we must be held responsible for the damage we do to our world. The victims of our environmental crimes are
our children and our grandchildren.
Unfortunately, they do not have a significant voice in our current
political affairs. I whole-heartedly
support governmental action to curb the emissions and automobiles. I would also hope that governments would
invest into clean technology such as hydroelectric or solar power. The United States, however, cannot do this
alone. This is why I am happy that
recently the President Obama and his Chinese counterpart have met and agreed to regulations that will reduce the negative impact our countries have on the
world.
According
to 350.com, China has two significant environmental agencies within its
borders. Ironically, they are both
located where there is significant controversy as to the extent of the Chinese
government’s power in the area. The
first is a 350 syndicate in Hong Kong which “aims
to widen and deepen our scope of combating global warming.” Hong Kong, of course, just underwent
significant social upheaval with anti-Chinese government protests. The other is a “Taiwan Power Shift” which is
essentially a meeting of young Taiwanese environmentalists over how to address
climate change in the region. Taiwan is
a little bit of an international grey area with some countries recognizing its
sovereignty while others, namely China, believing it is a part of it’s a part
of the People’s Republic. So to answer
the question about the extent of environmental groups active in the country, it
is limited at best and non-existent at worst. Greenpeace has a website
dedicated to its action in China however it is in Mandarin. This being the case it is hard to determine
how effective the organization is in my country. What Greenpeace has done however is analyze
the current environmental situation in China and reported on it fervently. They have gone to great lengths to analyze
the carbon emissions of the country as well as the polluted water that the
Chinese population consumes.
Additionally, Greenpeace covered the recent agreement between President
Obama and President Xi Jinping to reduce carbon emissions going forward. Greenpeace has also launched an international
campaign to curb the amount of harmful chemicals China and other major textile
producers dump into their waterways for the production of clothes they send to
their citizens and rest of the world.
Water.org is surprisingly not present in China given what
Greenpeace had to say about the contaminants that are being poured into China’s
rivers. Instead, they work in India, Cambodia,
Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
If I had to guess the lack of NGO involvement is due to a few
factors. The first being that China is a
developing country that does not want to be hampered with environmental restrictions
as it attempts to climb the economic ladder.
They would prefer to get on equal footing with the United States and
then proceed to worry about the quality of their water and air. Secondly, despite recent reforms, China is
still an authoritarian government that does not tolerate significant western
interference in the form of aid workers.
