AN OLYMPIC-SIZE PROBLEM
philanthropy Stephen Barnes, who has taught law at China’s Harbin Institute of Technology, says that for
many of China’s citizens, “that’s just the reality they have to live with.” Even so, Barnes is optimistic that
people like Wang can educate the people as well as the state on the dangers of unchecked pollution.
Wang, he says, “is pioneering one of the leading institutions training future generations of environmen-
tal lawyers.” CLAPV has its volunteer lawyers and has sought out the international networks available,
like E-LAW and the National Resources Defense Council, to stir cross-cultural exchange. “He has the num-
bers,” Barnes says, “and he’s got the benefits of being immersed in the government, academia and NGO
environments, and he uses each of them to get the word out.”
Getting the word out used to be difficult for people like Wang, but recently even the Chinese gov-
ernment has warmed up to the cause. In 1997, China enacted criminal penalties for environmental pol-
luters, giving teeth to the much-beleaguered State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). But those
teeth have been more like dentures, sometimes willing to bite but more likely to lie dormant in a water
glass. For example, last month the state cracked down on local governments and large energy providers
in China. It was seen as a bold move, though SEPA’s vice-minister Pan Yue later warned, “some projects
could still be running without approval … ignoring SEPA’s warning.” And Ken Lieberthal, an expert on
China at the University of Michigan, explains: “Much of the environmental energy generated at the
national level dissipates as it diffuses through the multi-layered state structure, producing outcomes
that have little concrete effect.”
That’s where CLAPV comes in: as the go-between.
Unlike its relations with Chinese lawyers who take on governmental corruption (and sometimes end
up imprisoned for their stand), the Chinese government has no reason to hinder the goals of CLAPV,
since the state openly acknowledges it has struggled to put an end to illegal industrial practices. Zhang
insists that the government won’t shut down the hotline because it ”wants to solve this problem, too.”
The major obstacle, she says, lies with the local government officials, who are supposed to enforce
pollution regulations, but whose salaries are fed by the taxes received from local industrial polluters.
Making the entire process more of a headache are the judges themselves. Finding little incentive for
enforcement, local judges often side with the polluters. Zhang noted that the “higher courts are better,
more independent,” and thus will give a more favorable ruling. But getting to the higher court depends
on the local courts’ rulings, and plaintiffs have only one chance at appeal.
Putting it more bluntly, a SEPA official said, “In some areas, corrupted officials protect local pollut-
ing industries to gain personal profits. Without clean officials, there will be no clean water.” Barnes calls
it a “urban and rural gap,” where the “the very enterprises that might do the most damage to the envi-
ronment, represent — in the short term — the most prosperity.”
But when both the government and the local industries won’t listen, the people are increasingly tak-
ing matters into their own hands. According to the China Daily, more than 50,000 protests were docu-
mented in 2005 alone, with 50.6 percent related to water pollution and 40 percent to air pollution. In
June 2006, SEPA officials acknowledged that environmetal pollution has become “a main factor affect-
ing China’s national security and social stability.” Fearing mass protests and public discord, Zhang says
the state judiciary has — at least for the near future — prohibited class action lawsuits. This prohibition,
however, runs contrary to the state’s own lofty goals.
SEPA recently released its “Guideline for Strengthening Environmental Education and Enhancing
Public Awareness on Environmental Protection during 2006-2010.” One of the guideline’s edicts is to “set
up and improve mechanism of public participation into environmental protection. The volunteers and
NGOs are encouraged to organize and take part in environmental protection activities in various forms.”
With the class action muzzle in place, the best tools CLAPV has are civil suits and increasing interna-
tional pressure for China to take responsibility for its citizens’ health.
PHOTO BY XUAN RONG
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
The “Erin Brockovich of China”
Zhang Jingjing
The last time the Summer Olympics were held in a developing nation was Mexico City in 1968. That
city’s air pollution had not yet reached its choking toxicity of today, but the high elevation did make
some runners short on breath. The jumpers, of course, had a field day. The same can’t be said of
Beijing, which sits in a plain and collects thick sea air or desert dust depending on what direction the
wind blows, trapping air particulates in carbon-rich smog.
China set its target of cutting energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of GDP and major pol-
lutants by 10 percent from 2005 to 2010. But it flunked its first test last year. Its sulfur dioxide emis-
sions grew by 2.4 percent, according to SEPA figures.
Elizabeth Economy, author of The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s
Future, wrote in The Washington Post, “Beijing won its Olympics bid with the promise of the world’s
first ‘green’ games. Five years later, there is no talk of a green Olympics, only of how extensive a shut-
down of industry and transportation will be needed in Beijing and surrounding provinces just to
ensure that the athletes can breathe.”
Zhang says that the government is trying its best but it “worries Beijing’s air quality won’t meet [the
International Olympic Committee’s] standards” for athletes. According to an article in the Wall Street
Journal, even if Beijing ”shuts down all
its factories, bans all nonessential
traffic and orders everyone to turn
down air conditioning, Chinese and
foreign scientists say there is no way
to keep the winds from carrying pollu-
tion across the borders.” This makes it
clear how important it is to find
national — and global — solutions to
local problems.
In 2008, Beijing will be the bell- Though a handful of runners were hospitalized —
and two died — from dehydration, the 2004 Beijing
wether for China’s hope for a clean Marathon was staged with relatively few hitches
future. Barnes has been traveling to
China for the past two years and says each time he arrives in Beijing, there are dramatic improve-
ments, such as more options for recycling, more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road and natural gas
powered buses. Barnes believes the Olympics are of incomparable magnitude. “In terms of national
pride,” he says, “it touches on every Chinese citizen. This represents the ‘New China’ … they’re going
to extraordinary efforts.”
If the IOC has enough clout to push Beijing to cut air pollution, surely it would behoove Eugene to
increase its air quality in time for the Olympic Trials. Lisa Arkin, executive director of the Oregon
Toxics Alliance — the group instrumental in lobby-
ing for a ban on field burning in the Willamette
Valley — says she’s been trying to contact the
Olympic officials but so far hasn’t heard back. “We
want to alert them to the health impact of partic-
ulate matter [caused by field and slash burning],”
Arkin says. “We hope they would be concerned
enough to support these measures.”
The 2008 Olympics may bring Beijing and
Eugene closer, but 2007 brings more opportunities
to learn from each other. New this year, E-LAW will
add two Chinese lawyers to its established fellows
program. The fellows will be working with E-LAW
staff scientists and attorneys in addition to taking
a ten-week English course at the UO’s American
English Institute. Barnes says that E-LAW has been
trying to connect with China for years to make this
happen and finally found the “real deal” with
Handkerchiefs and surgical
CLAPV. He says that the two fellows will stay for
masks help limit exposure to one
about 11 weeks and then return to China. “We want
of Beijing’s “high alert” days, when
them back in their home countries, working on
nitrogen dioxide levels are at their peak
their [country’s] issues,” says Barnes. In addition
to the two fellows, a special guest is usually invited for a shorter period of two weeks to give com-
munity lectures and work on networking. This year, Wang is that guest.
Are Chinese citizens more aware of environmental law? Even 10 years ago there was no mention
in the media of these issues. As recently as 1998, Wang was the only professor teaching environ-
mental law. Now there are more than 10. With his position as a respected professor and practicing
lawyer, Wang has had the opportunity to write new environmental legislation for the People’s
Congress; cases CLAPV have won are now used as precedents to argue new cases; the eco-ball is
rolling. Barnes says, “I believe the progress of the rule of law combined with folks like Wang at CLAPV
really offers hope to China.”
ew
PHOTO BY PETER MORGAN
Desertification is driving agricultural workers to cities — like Shanghai — in droves
MARCH 1, 2007 13