China's environmental challenge
Rebecca Macfie of The Listener got an Asia:NZ media grant to travel to China in April-May 2010, this time to research stories about the environmental challenges posed by China’s exponential growth, and the way evolving technology may help tackle them.
I began thinking about this story two years ago when I went to China for the first time on an Asia:NZ media grant to investigate the impact of the NZ-China Free Trade Agreement, and the hard realities of doing business in this complex market.
No-one who visits China can ignore the pollution. It’s all around: gritty air, filthy rivers, toxic-looking lakes and streams, deforested landscape.
The story of China’s three-decade re-emergence as a global economic power is transfixing. In my adult lifetime we have seen the world’s most populous nation change before our eyes; hundreds of millions of people have benefitted from this economic revolution.
But the environmental cost has been huge. I wanted to go back to China to try to understand just how grave the damage is, and whether the Chinese can halt the degradation and restore their rivers, lakes, air and soils to health.
It was a ridiculously ambitious brief, but I tried to prepare by reading a raft of excellent books and reports – most significantly, Elizabeth Economy’s The River Runs Black, but also the fantastic reporting provided by the likes of the New York Times, Washington Post and The Economist.
I knew the hardest part would be getting introductions to people who were knowledgeable on the topic, and who would be prepared to talk to an unknown journalist from a small and fairly insignificant country. I was pessimistic about my chances of getting interviews with Chinese government environmental officials, and instead blitzed every contact who I thought might be able to lead me to expertise.
I went to WWF and Greenpeace; I talked to Kiwi greentech entrepreneurs who I knew to have connections in the Chinese market.
I called NZTE, and McKinsey’s Andrew Grant, and old China hands like David Mahon (who, as ever, was supportive and encouraging of my attempts to understand the new China).
It was months before I felt confident of being able to pull together a story that brought any insight into my topic, but eventually things began falling into place.
I got introductions to Peggy Liu, an environmental warrior in Shanghai, and to Gary Rieschel, a Shanghai venture capitalist specialising in cleantech.
WWF New Zealand put me in touch with WWF China, whose media man Chris Chaplin was enthusiastic about guiding me through some of the environmental projects they are involved in.
Greenpeace put me in contact with the wonderful Yang Ailun in Beijing. I got in touch with the redoubtable Gavin Crombie, of Chengdu, who was confident he could arrange meetings for me with local environmental officials. I sent lots of “cold” emails to activists and experts, most of whom steadfastly ignored my pleas for interviews.
By April 2010, I decided I had enough to go on. It made sense to time my trip to coincide with the early days of the Shanghai Expo and a big investment conference being held by the Hong Kong broking house CLSA, whose reports on China’s water quality and energy challenges had been an important part of my preparation.
As ever when dealing with China, things happened at the last minute. After many stressful weeks dealing with the People’s Republic of China embassy over getting a journalist visa, it arrived five days before I was due to fly out in early May.
After a few days in Shanghai I flew to Chengdu, where I spent three days before being told just hours before I was due leave for Beijing that a senior local environmental official had agreed to grant me an interview.
Once in Beijing, Chris Chaplin nailed down the details of a trip to see the Low Carbon City Initiative at the city of Baoding; and through David Mahon’s contacts I was introduced to a passionate environmentalist who stunned me with her frank criticism of the regime and pessimistic view of China’s environmental future.
Along the way I interviewed Gavin Crombie about his amazing animated movie-making business in Chengdu, and Kyle Murdoch and Lauren Wang of Natural History New Zealand about their company’s long-running success in the Chinese market.
As I found in 2008, two weeks in China was just long enough to remind me how little I know and understand about this huge, complex country. I decided the only honest way to report on what I had seen and heard on China’s environmental crisis was to take readers on the journey I had been on, in the hope that, at the very least, it would bring greater understanding that the world’s biggest polluter is also perhaps the world’s most determined adopter of environmental technologies – but that the task of reversing the damage caused by 30 years of rampant growth will be long and difficult.
I am extremely grateful to Asia:NZ for supporting me on this project, and to the many, many people who generously shared their knowledge, provided me with introductions, and helped me find my way.