Welcome to the May 2024 edition of Pacific Environment’s new monthly e-newsletter! This is an opportunity to highlight some of our work and share our victories for communities, climate, and wildlife. Ports for People In Los Angeles, a demand for clean air and healthy portside neighborhoods Pacific Environment, in tandem with members of T.H.E. Impact … Read more
Since President Xi Jinping solemnly announced the “3060” carbon target at the general debate of the 75th United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2020, the shipping industry in China has been moving towards the goal of creating low-carbon fuel supply, building a modern value chain, and achieving high-quality growth. Changjiang River Administration of Navigational … Read more
Last week, the Pacific Environment team returned home from the fourth meeting of the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (also known as INC-4) in Ottawa, Canada. This meeting brought together delegates from over 160 countries, as well as hundreds of industry, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, rightsholders, health advocates and other observers. Our team focused … Read more
Welcome to the April 2024 edition of Pacific Environment’s new monthly e-newsletter! This is an opportunity to highlight some of our work and share victories for communities, climate, and wildlife. Plastics Earth Day: Planet vs. Plastics It is the 54th celebration of Earth Day and this year’s theme of Planet vs. Plastics is important to … Read more
Originally posted on the Wilson Center’s New Security Beat blog. China has rapidly moved to address escalating food and beverage packaging waste, including the 2018 ban on importing plastic recyclables, the implementation of extensive urban waste sorting pilots, and the 2022 prohibition of non-biodegradable single-use plastics. But China’s plastic mountains are still growing. While exerting … Read more
Plastic pollution threatens the ecological environment, human health, and is a key driver of climate change. Single-use plastic is a particularly problematic type of plastic. This is due to the rapid increase in single-use plastic production and disposal in recent years, and its high level of life-cycle carbon emissions. Reuse and refill is a key … Read more
Happy New Year from all of us at Pacific Environment! Last year, we tackled everything from bubble tea sold in throw-away plastic containers to false, fossil-fueled promises in the shipping industry. We’re working across communities and oceans to build people power and protect our planet. And, we’re ready to do it all over again in … Read more
We had a great year with many important wins. But none of this would have been possible without our supporters. This support helps Pacific Environment collaborate with brave grassroots leaders to fight climate change, defend the oceans, protect wildlife, build just societies and move beyond fossil fuels toward a green economy. Our teams coordinate ambitious … Read more
In 2021, Pacific Environment partnered with community leaders to fight climate change, protect the oceans, build just societies, and move beyond fossil fuels toward a green economy. I’m proud of the historical wins we and local activists achieved this year. And I hope you are, too, because we couldn’t do what we do without the … Read more
I first met Ding Jie a decade ago when she was a college graduate taking on heavy polluters in the big city. Together we toured the city of Wuhu, located west of Shanghai on the Yangtze River in southern Anhui Province. Making our way through stagnant air and past construction rubble and urban decay, I … Read more
While it may seem unusual for an environmental group to provide medical relief, for Zhang Jun, temporarily pivoting his organization to COVID-19 relief made sense. When the COVID-19 crisis hit China, he contacted the local government in Anhui Province (about 200 miles from the outbreak’s early epicenter in Wuhan) to offer his team’s help. Having … Read more
With the support of activists like you, we are building people power around the Pacific Rim to fight climate change, defend the oceans, promote open and inclusive societies, and ensure a just transition to a clean energy future for all. Here are five accomplishments I’m especially proud of this year. They would not have been … Read more
Yu Jianfeng recently started fighting “white pollution,” as people in China call plastic pollution based on the ubiquity of discarded white plastic bags. “Plastic is a really big problem for rivers,” he said. “It is eaten by fish and other wildlife and its toxic chemicals can move up the food chain. It affects individual species, … Read more
Earlier this month, I was in a rural area of China, up in a mountain village whose residents—mostly small-plot farmers and proprietors of small tourist hostels—had agreed to participate in a project to try to reduce the plastic waste of the village. The villagers quickly learned that almost all their waste was plastic waste from … Read more
Here are seven accomplishments I’m especially proud of this year. They would not have been possible without your generosity and passion. We won strong international protections for Arctic and Alaskan communities and wildlife. New rules now require ships to avoid fragile marine ecosystems around three islands in the Bering Sea (Nunivak Island, St. Lawrence Island, and King Island)—reducing the … Read more
Now, more than ever, we depend on the courage and dedicated activism of grassroots activists like you. As our own government is denying climate change and allowing polluters to pump more toxins into our water, our food, and our bodies, it’s up to you and me and others like us to fight for our future. … Read more
Many cultures worship the lone hero who overcomes terrible obstacles in the fight for justice. True leadership, however, empowers others to become strong leaders alongside oneself. For years, Liu Sheng fought hard to protect the Xiang River in his hometown in Hunan Province from toxic pollution. He and his team at Green Hunan, an environmental … Read more
It’s a strange time. And not just the political time we live in. I’m writing from Chongqing, China, where the air quality is wonderful and “healthy” (a green color for those of you familiar with the conventions of air quality maps). And I’m reading about my family and friends in California and the San Francisco … Read more
Last year, I accompanied Yun Jianli on a surprise visit to a wastewater treatment plant in her hometown Xiangyang in Hubei Province. We were investigating river pollution and asked the plant’s environmental manager to show us the equipment. It was noon, we were standing out in the burning sun, and I was feeling too hot … Read more
Imagine: A local villager admitting that she accepted a color TV from the owner of a factory that is polluting a nearby river. Environmental officials questioning pollution data presented by a local environmental group, shouting, “Where does your data come from? Why is this the first time we are seeing this?” Similar incidents happen all … Read more