Turn down for...APEC?

  Earlier this month China hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. In an effort to come across as an environmentally responsible country it made sure to put a proverbial “fresh coat of paint” on their persisting pollution issues. According to an Associated Press article the conference took place in Beijing. Government officials of China prepared for the event by putting strict constraints on all pollution creating avenues by, “closing factories and construction sites, banning cars on certain days and postponing the seasonal start of a coal-powered heating system”. While a nice gesture, (I’m pretty sure everyone cleans up their place before they have guests) the bigger problem is that citizens of Beijing have become accustomed to checking certain apps in order to determine what they can do that day (jog at the park or at gym). The fact that Beijing’s citizens have integrated such behaviors into their everyday lives is worrying in and of  itself but here’s the kicker- during APEC the app that is most trusted and widely used was surprisingly out of commission.

As an area that is experiencing a huge boom of business development it makes sense to pay attention to the effects that such development has on the environment but the fact that this attention is only being paid while someone else is looking is disheartening. It also makes a larger statement of how China’s government truly values business in compared to quality of life and health. When the majority of developed countries look to China as a place where they can get their goods manufactured one must wonder at what cost?

It seems like the US and Europe are suffering from NIMBY (not in my back yard) syndrome and as a result sent the manufacturing problems to less developed countries and wrapped them in a bow of economic empowerment. The biggest advantage China and other developing countries can take when experiencing an industrial revolution is use technology in a proactive way that allows them to skip over the pitfalls already experienced in previously industrialized countries. Instead of re-visiting the past why not invent a new future that actually puts public health, safety and the environment first. 

A look at the above map gives a clear picture of how the factories and large driving population has created a huge pollution problem. There are so many problems that will arise environmentally if China does not get this issue under control soon. Hopefully new talks about environmental improvements in China will actually amount to something. In the meantime maybe more international conferences should be in Beijing, that way they’ll always have a reason to lower their smog emissions. 

Too Much Conflict and Not Enough Policy Makes MENA a Thirsty Region

Amid on-going conflict in many Mid-East and North African (MENA) countries, there is a huge problem that will affect that region’s ability to sustain population growth in the future. That problem is major lack of drinkable and potable water. Julia Devlin discusses the impact of this water crisis in her article Is Water Scarcity Dampening Growth Prospects in the Middle East and North Africa?

The region has managed to create an agricultural system that employs many but, MENA grows more susceptible to damage from climate change due to the area’s arid soil and low amounts of rainfall. In particular Syria is facing possible desertification of up-to 60% of its land area. There has been a surge in population and not enough preparations have been made to sustain the growth. Furthermore, current irrigation practices create a lot of wasted water due to their inefficient set-up.

There are many problems that the region has when it comes to creating a sustainable water solution. Few places have truly taken a look at how to deal with the looming crisis. One country that has is the U.A.E. They have worked on creating irrigation systems that are more efficient and use “smart” technology. This technology uses sensors that determine when and if a field needs more watering which, is a vast improvement in consumption compared to automatic watering systems that rely solely on timers.

 Naturally, areas that are in conflict and with little to no leadership and vastly smaller budgets may not have the ability to research and test such options as the U.A.E has. The point is that it seems that many of the areas that will be hardest hit by this water shortage are too consumed by ideological struggles to even begin the task of sitting at the table with other members of the region to begin making headway on a life sustaining resource shortage. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. Even if some MENA governments are not paying attention, the hope is that they have a community of citizens that are. Many major problems find solutions not from the government but from the people under its rule that needed the innovation most.

China's Got A New Bag: Religious Awakening and Political Demands Trump Materialistic Ideals

There’s some tea brewing in China and it’s hot! With rampant development and a burgeoning middle class there is an air of dissent bubbling just below the surface. Ongoing protests in Hong Kong have been in the news lately and right on time the book Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, by Evan Osnos, is reviewed by John Osburg, for the journal Foreign Affairs. In Osberg’s article Can't Buy Me Love: China's New Rich and Its Crisis of Values, he discusses the rift between the haves and the have not’s in China as well as how the bottom seems to have dropped out of the pragmatic ideology so firmly held by the people of China in the recent past. This ties into the motivation behind the protests in Hong Kong very well. In the past thirty years or so, China has seen a large boom in economic development which according to Osnos, has created a very materialistic consumer oriented society. Yet, he points to signs that the Chinese populous wants more now, more stability, dignity and more freedom to pursue religious endeavors. These ideals seem to be concurrent with the protests and one may extend those wants to include a more democratic governing body especially when it comes to Hong Kong. When you look at the information provided by John Osburg in regards to Osnos’s book it is stated that there is a high likelihood that the children of the newly-minted middle class will see the end of the prosperous economic boom their parents experienced due to corruption and nepotism/cronyism. It seems that the protests in Hong Kong are a sign that the youth are aware of this and want to hold the Chinese government accountable for creating a democratic Hong Kong. This would help create a system where people could set up a government that would be able to deal with the large aging population without having staggering effects on the economy or put the whole of china in a place where a large part of their population goes without care in old age. Plus, if the protests are successful one would hope that a free democratic election in Hong Kong will give the rest of China’s citizens an infusion of hope to see similar changes in their mainland governance.