An American Lion

This is NOT the river affected; it’s just a picture of a river in China

There has been a rather large, and potentially disastrous oil spill in China, and that gives me an excuse to read about the Chinese environmental movement:

A large oil spill in northwest China has heavily polluted a tributary of the Yellow River, and threatens to reach one of the country’s longest and most important sources of water.

China’s state-run news media said late Saturday that a “large amount” of diesel oil had leaked out of a pipeline last Thursday in Shaanxi Province.

The government has not explained why the report of the spill was not released until late Saturday. But Xinhua, the official state news agency, said the leak was caused by construction work and that a crew of 700 people was struggling to contain the damage from what Shaanxi officials said was about 150,000 liters, or about 40,000 gallons, of diesel oil.

The damaged pipeline belongs to the China National Petroleum Corporation, one of the country’s state-owned oil giants and the parent company of PetroChina. The company did not specify on Saturday exactly how much oil was spilled but said that it had shut down the pipeline. The company also said that “much of the leaked oil and polluted silt has already been taken away.” But government officials in Shaanxi province said on Saturday that oil has been detected far downstream from the leak and warned local residents not to use water in the region.

Unfortunately, the reliability of your garden variety Chinese bureaucrat is about that of your neighborhood ACORN tax strategy planner. It’s worth noting that, should this reach catastrophic proportions, and I certainly hope that is does not and that they can contain the impact of the diesel oil, it does mean that there could be more emphasis on environmental issues in China.

China’s strong-arm tactics at the recent environmental summit in Cophenhagen notwithstanding, it’s one thing to note their emphasis on alternative fuels and wind turbines; it’s another thing to cut through the lies and see what’s what.

Who, exactly, are the leaders of the environmental movement in China?

China’s environmental activists tend to be educated, articulate, and in many cases, quite charismatic. Their background is varied: Liang Congjie is an historian and Wang Canfa is a lawyer, but the vast majority brings a media background to the table. Liao Xiaoyi, Dai Qing, Wang Yongchen, Hu Kanping, Shi Lihong, Wen Bo, Huo Daishan, and Xi Zhinong, among others, were all journalists, photographers, or radio/television personalities. This media background has proved invaluable in raising the profile of environmental issues within the Chinese government and throughout the country. Most of China’s environmental NGO leaders have also spent significant time abroad, particularly in the United States either at universities or training with various U.S.-based environmental NGOs. Several, including Liang Congjie, Liao Xiaoyi, and Wang Yongchen, have won major international environmental awards for their work.

Many of the most renowned of China’s environmental activists/NGOs are based in Beijing. However, they undertake activities throughout the entire country, including significant efforts in Tibet, Yunnan, and Sichuan. Many smaller, locally-based NGOs have also sprung up to address local concerns, such as biodiversity protection, dam construction, and water pollution. While many of these smaller NGOs struggle with the government-mandated registration process and funding and membership requirements, the Beijing-based NGOs often try to nurture and develop these NGOs, providing them with training on grant writing, developing materials and programs, and even providing financial support.

Universities have also become hotbeds of environmental activism with many of the larger universities boasting more than one environmental club. (University environmental groups may or may not go through the process of registration, which can be quite burdensome.) In 2004, on Earth Day, a reported 100,000 Chinese college students in 22 provinces participated in environmental activities organized by university groups.

Through environmental websites such as Green Web, newspapers such as China Environmental News, China Green Times, Southern Weekend, and 21st Century Business Herald China Green Times. This has sharply limited the income and circulation of such environmental papers.

The recent spill impacts the Yellow River, and there are already environmentalists in place, ready to go to work:

A giant hand-drawn map of Lanzhou showing the Yellow River and nearby factories hung on one wall; a whiteboard with names and assigned tasks was mounted on another. The office’s few bookcases were crammed with volumes on environmental science, geology, and the history of the region. Around one table, over a late take-out dinner, a group of 20-something staffers and volunteers was discussing the environmental curriculum they were teaching in local primary schools.

Zhao Zhong and his colleagues represent a new breed in China: idealistic young people. Control over one’s personal future is a new concept in China. “Ten or twenty years ago, students would graduate and simply be allocated to a job,” explains Jane Pierini, executive director of PeopleLink, a group in Beijing that helps domestic nonprofits build organizational capacity. Factories would determine where you worked, when you could travel, and even whether you were allocated to single or married housing. “Everything was set, even the time when one could marry.”

But in recent decades, with the advent of Deng Xiaoping’s “Open Door” policy and the gradual dismantling of the state-controlled economy, new choices exist for young Chinese with adequate education. Each of Green Camel Bell’s members share in a dream their parents could not have imagined: They can purchase an office, hold meetings, distribute informational pamphlets, and organize public activities, albeit confined by certain legal restrictions. “Civil society is now a phrase people in China are beginning to understand,” Pierini says.

Many civic-minded young people in China gravitate toward environmentalism — in part because the country’s environmental problems are so severe, and in part because the government has over the last decade passed laws that afford green groups a relatively unique degree of autonomy to operate. Some green NGO leaders are even consulted by government officials and praised by the state-controlled media. Almost unheard of two decades ago, student environmental groups are today multiplying quickly on college campuses, with several hundred now operating nationwide.

So, it’s not all head-bashing and repression, no matter what we might think in the West. I think it is important to also note that these advocacy organizations are required to register with the government and follow rules:

China’s environmental movement now boasts over 2,000 officially registered NGOs as well as several thousand non-registered groups and environmental businesses. The movement has not only grown rapidly in recent years, but it has learned to skillfully navigate the political landscape. Friends of Nature’s Liang Congjia explains how 11 years ago, environmental groups tended to focus on the politically neutral issues of environmental education and species protection. They have since grown increasingly bold, influencing government policy, organizing protests, and filing lawsuits aimed at holding polluting industries accountable and halting dams and other development projects. Particularly notable was a recent successful campaign against dams on the Nu River in Yunnan Province, which brought together a broad range of NGOs, scholars, student groups, and media in one of the fiercest environmental battles in China’s history.

Environmental groups are also taking an increasingly holistic approach to their work, addressing environmental concerns in the context of wider issues such as minority and gender relations, poverty, and community development. Li Dajun of Green Watershedexplained at the NGO Forum how his group aims to not only restore watershed ecosystems, but also cultivate citizenship awareness by involving people in their own water security. “When you start tapping into development at the local scale, using local culture and local resources, you see that this leads to local responsibility and sustainability,” he said. In addition to ecological restoration, Green Watershed supports microcredit for minority women, youth and adult education, organic agriculture, wetlands fisheries, and community libraries. These initiatives have influenced government policy and spurred other bottom-up development activities that go beyond simply protecting ecosystems.

Today’s environmental leaders tend to be well educated and adept at media outreach and negotiating China’s political scene. They have proven increasingly skillful at engaging scientists, the media, international NGOs, and government officials in advocacy work. And China’s central government, while cautious to give activists too much broad political power, has generally maintained a supportive attitude towards environmental groups, recognizing that the state alone does not have the capacity to protect the environment. Groups that are able to abide by the regulations and restrictionsdesigned to keep activism in check have tended to enjoy strong support from China’s State Environmental Protection Administration.

“Activism in check.” That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it?