“I don’t look both ways, just forward.” –Adam Minter
It’s not the butterfly affect,
it’s the sledgehammer affect -Peggy Liu
“We have lost our dreams…our imagination…in our efforts to work so hard to achieve the Western way of living” –Flora Lan
Anything is possible in China. And nothing is easy. –Shanghai Saying
“I won’t stay in Shanghai forever, but I know I am in a place where history is in the making. In 20 years, I want to say, ‘I was there.’” –Chitra Hepburn
“This is China’s time to shine, and we know it.”
And so the Sustainable Shanghai Virtual Tour comes to a close. If you have been playing along, you may have “toured around” the web to gather the content at Planet Green, What Gives, [re]Think Shanghai, and my little blog…
Let me be frank, I didn’t write this little series for the money (actually, I haven’t even covered the cost of the trip). I did it because I got laid off, had some vacation pay, had an opportunity to tag along with the GOAP crew, and saw an opportunity to tell a story I believed was important. Because some internal knob clicked and I realized that while my attention has been focused solely in one direction re: the environment, one of the most important stories of the planet’s evolution was happening in the other direction. Of course, we don’t have the capacity to look in all directions at once (I think that is a skill of the Gods) but my hope is that this virtual tour will introduce you to enough people and stories for to offer an introduction into the wild world of China’s race to achieve a sustainable way of life.
It wasn’t getting shoved in the airport, or having every space I held in line skipped, it was the train ride that passed one long suburb of falling down sky-rises (and a small town of 7 million), that I finally took in what over population looked like. That is when I understood the desperation caused by water shortage, the need (not want) to innovate, the severed disconnection from the natural world. There was a moment when my throat and nose were sore from air pollution, and I had taken in too many stories of just how broken the supply chain is and grasped just how powerless we are as consumers…and all I really wanted was to go back to my little bubble in Berkeley and never look back. But look in any direction, and the bright blinking lights will attract your attention. They are coming from beautifully decorated boats on the river, complex designs on the buildings, and even from underneath the overpasses, even from within the trees~ this opulent celebration of the creative. It is those moments that I am reminded of a piece written by an old friend, Sam Trice, about how Switzerland, with all of it’s peaceful ways, never produced any art worth looking at; it was the cities in the throes of great adversity, the places that were shoved by society’s limits that produced the greatest creations on our planet.
Gaining an understanding about China’s role in the environmental movement is akin to snorkeling. You’re just following that beautiful colorful and shiny fish, and then all of a sudden you lost track of time and you realize you are eye to eye with…a really big eye, and you can’t quite figure out what it is, so you back up to get a little perspective and that’s when you realize that eye is attached to the alpha male of the sea lion den you wandered into, and he’s really big and he actually rules this kingdom. Well….that’s a little like what my journey into understanding China’s impact on the environmental health of our planet has been like.
Many people point fingers and blame China for many of the problems that are happening, and the most beautiful part of this story, is that the root of the plants that so many of us depend on for our goods are located in the form of factories in China, and no place is better situated to influence the world as we know it.
The opportunity in China to solve the planet’s problems are tremendous~ and the race is on.
So here’s the deal: I am taking you on a virtual tour of Shanghai, the only places I didn’t take you was into the bathroom or under the table~ so pick and choose where you want to go. I’ll provide a brief summary and put stars next to the posts that I believe contain valuable information that everyone should share with their mother. If you’re like me, and can’t f***ing BELIEVE that someone actually expects you to pour over all the links below: Just read Eco Cities: Bridging the Gap Between Fantasy and the Future on Nat Geo News Watch. It has lots of facts, will catch you up to speed.
The Sustainable Shanghai Virtual Tour
Day 1: Entry (A few random thoughts about China, and a poorly lit and hard to understand video interview with Dr. Zhao Gang (the director of Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development and Ministry of Science and Technology).
Day 2: First Lesson in Over Population: Elbows Up: Video Interview with Jill Buck about environmental education in schools, Video from the observation deck of The World Financial Center (tallest observation deck on the planet), and lots of fun facts about Shanghai’s rapid urban development.
You can catch the full profile of Jill Buck and Go Green Initiative on What Gives.
Day 3: The World Expo. Lots of fun video and and a bonus interview with Chitra Hepburn (put out the green tech report) and her very positive view of Shanghai’s sustainability scene. Or you can find individual stories on Planet Green:GM’s insane version of 2030 (a grid system where you don’t need a car, or a brain). The UK Pavilion’s amazing Seed Cathedral
Day 4: Back to back interviews split into four parts:
Part 1: Factories Blowing Up and Public Official Executed: Fact or Fiction?
Part 2: Reclaiming China’s Future Greennovate teaches youth about the environment: VIDEO and insight into what it takes to get environmental education into the classroom. For an additional profile of Greennovate and a deeper discussion into what it takes to run a nonprofit in China check out the post on WhatGives.com.
***Part 3: Send your e-waste to China. No Really. It Might be Good for the Environment. If you own a PDA~ you should read this interview with Adam Minter. He’s been hanging out in the factories (plus there is a VIDEO by Laura Ling that takes you into an e-waste management city in China).
***Part 4: Does One Rotten Apple Ruin the Supply Chain? Yes. Think Suicide When You Look at Your PDA. A fascinating introduction into the realm of the supply chain corporate responsibility expert, Richard Brubaker. It doesn’t sound sexy~ but you don’t know what you’re missing. Meanwhile: to see a full profile on Richard Brubaker you can check out the post on What Gives.
Part 5: You want an Eco City? GIGA thinks you should consider making green building materials first. The title says it all.
Day 5: The Sustainable Shanghai (mini) Shopping tour. Bright colors. Art. Cool VIDEO of crickets from the Flower, Insect, and Fish market.
Day 6: Baring my soul at Naked Retreat, OR Finding the Lost Tribe of Transient Travelers OR Why Internet Stalking Is A Good Thing. While on a train ride to Naked Retreat (the first eco retreat in China), I finally had enough time to reflect on my experiences to date. Full profile on Gabriella Lo, co-founder of Naked Retreats, on WhatGives.
Day 8: Part 1 The Organic Farm Tour and greening the factories.
Part 2: Peggy Liu: Making Everyday Eco Heroes out of All of Us
On the flight back to the US, I recalled a funny memory from when I worked as a wilderness drug rehab counselor. We knew the kids were going to go back to their lives and keep abusing drugs, but we also knew that we had planted seeds that would always live within them. There is no ignoring what I learned. Only hope that sharing the experience will widen the path of knowledge.
