(October 14, 2009) Berlin – Organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair worked for 15 years to secure China as the guest of honor at their five-day showcase of global trends and best sellers that opens to industry delegates Wednesday. Organizers are steeling themselves for lively discussions and the possibility of protests at the fair, which boasts about 6,900 exhibitors from more than 100 countries.
Three Gorges Dam is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions
(October 14, 2009) The operators of the Three Gorges dam may soon have to answer to criticisms over its environmental credentials, as a recent study in the Journal of Geophysical Research says the marshlands created during the draining of the dam’s reservoir may be major a emitter of greenhouse gas emissions.
A shortage of capital flows
(October 9, 2008) Probe International‘s latest report is cited in an Economist article that describes how officials planned to divert water from Hebei province to Beijing for use during the Olympics, but instead waited until September 18th to begin the transfer.
Scaling legal barriers
(October 9, 2009) Review of “Environmental Public-Interest Litigation: A China-US Comparison”
A Chinese reporter’s journal of the Frankfurt book fair
(October 9, 2009) My plane landed in Frankfurt at 5:00 a.m. I was tired and jet lagged. I had spent the whole eight-hour trip reading about China’s publishing industry. I was assigned by a U.S.-based publishing magazine to cover the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest trade fair on books. China had been made the Guest of Honor this year.
Save Darfur Coalition wants US to fight debt relief to Sudan
(October 7, 2009) The US-based Save Darfur Coalition is making a new push to deny debt relief to Sudan. The activists are aiming to counter lobbying by Sudan at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank held this past week in Istanbul, Turkey.
Carbon credit scams add to the growing list of alleged fraud cases
(October 6, 2009) Officials in at least five European countries are investigating an international carbon credit scam considered to be worth more than $1.5 billion. According to a recent report for the Guardian, the scam was originally coordinated by gangs in Britain and Spain who bought and sold emissions allowances across borders in order to avoid paying Value Added Tax (VAT).
Earning money from air by harvesting carbon
(October 6, 2009) There are signs that nascent Redd projects are already leading to social conflict, possible fraud and worsening land disputes.
Why is the south-north water project being postponed?
(October 1, 2009) Is it the end of the mega-project in China? Tian Lei, from the South Wind Window writes that escalating costs in the South-to-North Water Diversion project are behind the recent delays in its completion. But more importantly, Tian says the days of massive, government-backed projects like the South-to-North Water Diversion project and the Three Gorges dam may be coming to an end.
Breaking the myth of aid. Dambisa Moyo’s remedies
(September 30, 2009) Aid, argues Dambisa Moyo, does not eradicate some of Africa’s first rank scourges such as civil wars and corruption. Quite the reverse: development aid encourages corruption and allows some regimes to stay in place artificially. Because of the significant amounts that aid invests, it triggers envy and can stir up ethnic tensions, which sometimes lead to civil wars.
Stop polluting Belize’s tropical rivers and stop the smokescreen, Probe International tells Fortis Inc.
(September 30, 2009) International aid and trade watchdog, Probe International, is asking Stanley Marshall, President and CEO of the Newfoundland-based power company Fortis Inc., to start accounting to the people of Belize and its shareholders about contamination of the Macal and Belize Rivers in Belize by the company’s Chalillo dam.
Letter from Probe International to Stanley Marshall, President and CEO of Fortis Inc.
(September 30, 2009) Letter from Probe International to Stanley Marshall, President and CEO of the Newfoundland-based power company Fortis Inc., asking him to start accounting to the people of Belize and its shareholders about the contamination of the Macal River in Belize by the company’s Chalillo dam.
China in the next 60 years: Dai Qing
(September 29, 2009) Environmentalist and dissident writer Dai Qing provides her take on what the future holds for China.
The Frankfurt book mess
(September 28, 2009) The Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse), the largest trade show of its kind, turned messy this year before it had even started. At the center of the brouhaha: China, the official guest of honor of the book fair 2009. Or, to be more precise, the row over the revoked invitation of two Chinese “dissidents,” Dai Qing and Bei Ling, to a symposium in the run-up to the Book Fair.
More money, more problems: The World Bank’s way
(September 25, 2009) In the wake of recent financial crisis, the World Bank called on the developed world to drastically increase lending to developing nations. Robert Zoellick and company say that countries in Africa and other parts of the developing world need this money to combat rising levels of poverty and an economic collapse.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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