socialistfuture
13th June 2007, 23:13
Chinese environmental protesters take to the streets
Protests of unprecedented scale have been taking place in China against rapid and deadly environmental destruction. A new youth movement is taking to the streets and demanding change. Sam Geall reports
Date:07/06/2007
We dont need GDP. We need life. Not a slogan from the anti-G8 protests in Germany this week, though it might have been. The words appear in the closing titles of an online video manifesto from China part Lao Tzu, part Naomi Klein -- that may mark an unlikely shift in attitudes among the countrys youth, often portrayed as ruthlessly driven by the pursuit of wealth.
You could be forgiven for finding this surprising. Chinas first national plan on climate change, released on June 4, put the countrys remarkable economic growth firmly ahead of environmental concerns eschewing curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions in favour of increased energy efficiency for the countrys rapidly expanding industry. Chinas population want to develop without criticism and without limits -- say the policys defenders. And few would find grounds to dispute it, were it not for the appearance of a video such as this, which was made as part of Chinas burgeoning antiPX movement.
When the authorities in the city of Xiamen (also known as Amoy) announced they were halting construction on a large petrochemical plant on May 30, it followed a sustained, furious text message and internet offensive in the southeast China port city. Type antiPX into a search engine in the UK and you uncover a plethora of messages from the campaign against the factory, slated to be built seven kilometres from the city, which would produce paraxylene (PX), a chemical used in the manufacture of polyester and a central nervous system depressant that can be fatal in high concentrations.
But search the term in China and you may only see the frequently inaccessible traces of myriad shifting blogs and blocked chatrooms, as the internet censors of Chinas Great Firewall rush to catch up with the increasingly networked protesters who spread news of upcoming protests by SMS, Twitter updates and online bulletin boards. One of the few reports in Chinas state media said nearly a million text messages had been sent demanding the government renounce the project...............
http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail...?content_id=953 (http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=953)
see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9YJXm1kqk4
China is one to watch, anyones guess which was things are going...
Protests of unprecedented scale have been taking place in China against rapid and deadly environmental destruction. A new youth movement is taking to the streets and demanding change. Sam Geall reports
Date:07/06/2007
We dont need GDP. We need life. Not a slogan from the anti-G8 protests in Germany this week, though it might have been. The words appear in the closing titles of an online video manifesto from China part Lao Tzu, part Naomi Klein -- that may mark an unlikely shift in attitudes among the countrys youth, often portrayed as ruthlessly driven by the pursuit of wealth.
You could be forgiven for finding this surprising. Chinas first national plan on climate change, released on June 4, put the countrys remarkable economic growth firmly ahead of environmental concerns eschewing curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions in favour of increased energy efficiency for the countrys rapidly expanding industry. Chinas population want to develop without criticism and without limits -- say the policys defenders. And few would find grounds to dispute it, were it not for the appearance of a video such as this, which was made as part of Chinas burgeoning antiPX movement.
When the authorities in the city of Xiamen (also known as Amoy) announced they were halting construction on a large petrochemical plant on May 30, it followed a sustained, furious text message and internet offensive in the southeast China port city. Type antiPX into a search engine in the UK and you uncover a plethora of messages from the campaign against the factory, slated to be built seven kilometres from the city, which would produce paraxylene (PX), a chemical used in the manufacture of polyester and a central nervous system depressant that can be fatal in high concentrations.
But search the term in China and you may only see the frequently inaccessible traces of myriad shifting blogs and blocked chatrooms, as the internet censors of Chinas Great Firewall rush to catch up with the increasingly networked protesters who spread news of upcoming protests by SMS, Twitter updates and online bulletin boards. One of the few reports in Chinas state media said nearly a million text messages had been sent demanding the government renounce the project...............
http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail...?content_id=953 (http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=953)
see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9YJXm1kqk4
China is one to watch, anyones guess which was things are going...