China Environ Prot (EP) Industry, Technology, Solid Waste Mgt, Liquid Treat: News & Discussions

[TaiShang]

A green path to wealth: ecological economy booms in Chinese villages

By Kou Jie, Liu Ning (People's Daily Online) 09:02, August 21, 2018

A luxuriant hamlet compactly nestled among the towering mountains, Yucun village in Zhejiang Province is a striking combination of carved valleys, fireworm-lit ponds, cozy farmhouses and toothsome cuisine. With a population of 1,060, the village is carpeted with azalea blossoms, with fast-flowing rivers and scattered guesthouses adding strokes and splashes to the natural canvas.

Yucun Village landscape. [Photo: People's Daily Online/Kou Jie]

Showcasing ecological tourism, the rural town has attracted over 400,000 visitors from home and abroad, with a GDP of 277.6 million RMB ($40.3 million) in 2017. While visiting this idyllic oasis, tourists would seldom imagine that Yucun village, charming in every aspect, was once a severely polluted and barren land. Abundant in minerals, the village used to be a cluster of cement plants and dusty quarries, which constantly contaminated the already tainted environment.

“Over a decade ago, the gray sky was like a murky dome, suffocating the villagers’ hope for a better life. The quarries, oozing filthy water, mired our desire for greenery. Though the local mining industry provided us a decent income and job opportunities, it also ruined our environment,” said Mou Boting, a 24-year-old villager.

The miserable situation started to improve in 2003, when the local government decided to shut down the quarries, shifting its development focus to ecological tourism. The move was praised by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the then Communist Party chief of Zhejiang Province, who visited Yucun Village and proposed the critical “Two Mountains” theory in 2005, calling clear waters and lush mountains invaluable assets, comparable to the gold and silver of legend.

A stela standing at the heart of Yucun Village, on which the “Two Mountains” theory is inscribed: "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." [Photo: People's Daily Online/Kou Jie]

“When the quarries were shut down, the residents were unsatisfied as many of them had lost their jobs, while the village’s annual income dropped from over 3 million to 200,000 RMB. However, the government financially supported the villagers to establish family farms and guest houses, helping them realize that only sustainable development can lead to true wealth,” said Mou.

The “Two Mountains” theory has encouraged other rural areas to improve their living environment, as well as to push towards a green economic transition. By the end of 2017, 27,000 villages in Zhejiang province have been renovated and reconstructed, accounting for 97 percent of the total.

Villages steeped in greenery

Fifteen years after the local government embarked on its journey to green development, Yucun Village has flourished as a renowned natural resort. Bamboo groves meander through the old mine slopes, while birds chirp from beneath the shade of water lilies. Countless visitors have come here to explore the secret of nature’s revival.

“The secret is to steep economic development in clear waters and lush mountains. The money we have earned from mines is now being invested in environmental protection, and this decision will benefit not only us but also nature and our children,” said Mou.

Located 248 kilometers from Yuncun Village, Tengtou Village in Zhejiang province is another pioneer in environmental protection. Tengtou, which possesses neither resource endowment nor industrial advantage, boasts decorative flowers and plants, as well as environmental protection technologies. In 1993, the United Nations granted the village a Global 500 Award for Environmental Achievement, generating a frenzy of eco-tourism in the region.

Tourists can board this little train to experience Tengtou Village's virescence projects. [Photo: People's Daily Online/Kou Jie]

“Beautiful nature is a contributing factor to our economic boom. The better our environment is, the more tourists, companies, and talents are attracted here. Unlike some rural areas that sacrifice nature for short-term interest, we are selling greenery and the concept of natural harmony to earn a better life,” said Fu Demin, director of Tengtou Village Environmental Protection Committee.

The green economy has benefited the village greatly. According to statistics, Tengtou conducted business worth 30 million RMB in 2008 by providing plants and flowers for the Beijing Olympic Games, while in 2010, it provided 100,000 tree seedlings for the Shanghai Expo. The village’s well-protected environment has also attracted visitors worldwide. In 1999, it became the first village in China to sell tickets to visitors, with its annual tourism revenue reaching 131 million RMB in 2017.

To further protect the natural environment, local authorities in Tengtou Village established China’s first village-level environmental protection committee in 1993, selecting both villagers and professionals as its members. The committee is responsible for evaluating whether an enterprise could potentially jeopardize the local environment, as well as arranging environmental protection tours for locals.

“We will not allow any business that may contaminate our environment to enter the village. We have also arranged tours for local entrepreneurs to places like Singapore to study new environmental protection technologies, as well as to polluted regions in north China, to learn from their failures,” added Fu.

In Fu’s office, advanced equipment which monitors air quality has caught our eye. According to Fu, the village invested 10 million RMB to build the country’s first village-level PM 2.5 monitoring station that can detect 96 air quality objectives, with its local PM 2.5 index updating every minute.

The mild sunlight penetrates the glass doors of the monitoring station, gliding over the PM 2.5 readings displayed on the equipment screens. 27-32, it is an index that indicates superb air quality, and a number that makes every villager proud.

A sustainable path to wealth

Though both have chosen a sustainable path to wealth, Yucun and Tengtou have found different development plans to suit their situation. For Yucun Village, agritainment has become a pillar of the local economy. According to statistics, the village now has three scenic spots and 14 guesthouses containing a total of 410 beds.

Every day, over 100 tourists stay in Pan Wenge’s guesthouse, tasting the green tea and dried bamboo shoots grown by local farmers. Opened the rural homestay ten years ago, Pan now has an annual income of one million RMB.

“By selling our beautiful scenery and high-quality service, as of 2015, the 280 households living in Yucun Village had 192 private cars, while 58 of them had villas in the countryside and apartments in the nearby cities,” Pan told Zhejiang Daily.

Orchards and fishponds have also been built for urban residents who want to escape the crowds and enjoy the rural tranquility. Hu Jiaxing, the owner of 50 rubber dinghies, started a rafting business, which can attract as many as 10,000 visitors per year, creating an income of over 2.2 million RMB.

Tengtou Village has pushed the eco-tourism industry even further. After 20 years, the village committee has decided to scrap the village entrance fee from 2019, as well as making the decision to rebuild old tourist sites into cultural and food streets.

“Since many villages are now developing ecological tourism, the competition has become fierce. Our ticket income has dropped significantly in recent years thus we need to upgrade our eco-economy innovatively,” said Lin Chenhui, assistant president of Tengtou Group co., Ltd.

According to Lin, the new cultural and food streets will be built using wasted materials and broken seashells. The streets will boost traditional Chinese architecture and delicious local food, and will also harbor several relocated ancestral houses, which will become cultural heritage museums.

In addition to upgrading eco-tourism, more entertainment options and infrastructures have been installed in Tengtou Village to attract new residents and business. The village committee has established an eco-nursing home for the elderly, charging only 1,500 RMB per month, offering the lodgers daily tours around their natural haven. A farm zoo will also be opened in the future, allowing urban children to learn about animals.

Xu Jianyun, a 63-year-old bird trainer, was hired by the local authorities to demonstrate his pigeon-summoning tricks in 2017. Gathering the birds with a single whistle, the animal lover told us that he wants more people, especially those who live in cities, to feel the harmony between animals and humans so that people can better respect nature.

63-year-old bird trainer Xu Jianyun can summon hundreds of pigeons at will.

“As the urban economy slows, many urban residents may want to come back to the countryside. We want to create a better environment and more job opportunities for those people, as doing so can also boost our economy and reverse the brain drain in our villages,” Lin added.

According to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 5.7 million people have moved from cities to the countryside to start a business in the last few years, while Tengtou Village, which has only 800 villagers, now is home to an external population of over 4,000.

“We welcome people to work and live in our villages. When they decide to return to their hometowns, they can bring the concept of environmental protection back home, helping us spread the greenery even further,” said Fu.

 

[JSCh]

Does Afforestation Deteriorate Haze Pollution in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), China?
Aug 22, 2018

Although aggressive emission control strategies have been implemented recently in BTH, China, pervasive and persistent haze still frequently engulfs the region during wintertime. Afforestation in BTH, primarily concentrated in the Taihang and Yan Mountains, has constituted one of the controversial factors exacerbating the haze pollution due to its slowdown of the surface wind speed.

The annual land cover product derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations since 2001 has been used to analyze the land cover change in BTH. A considerable increasing trend of forests in the western and northwestern BTH has been identified, which is caused by China’s national afforestation programs.

Forests in BTH and Beijing have increased by 7.2 % and 14.9 %, respectively, from 2001 to 2013. The fast forest expansion has increased the surface roughness height, particularly in Beijing and its surrounding areas.

Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled to Chemistry (WRF-CHEM) Sensitivity studies have demonstrated that the increase of the surface roughness height decreases the northwesterly or northerly wind speed in the western and northwestern BTH by about 0.3-1.5 m·s-1. The haze pollution is deteriorated in BTH to some degree, and PM2.5 concentrations are generally enhanced by less than 6% due to the afforestation.

The occurrence of heavy haze pollution in BTH is generally associated with the weakening of northerly or north-westerly winds, which facilitates the accumulation of air pollutants in BTH. The afforestation in the western and northwestern BTH increases the surface roughness height, further decelerating northerly or northwesterly winds and deteriorating the haze pollution.

However, the afforestation only plays a marginal role in worsening the haze pollution and does not constitute the main cause of the heavy haze formation.

Additionally, the model results do not support that the proposed large ventilation corridor system is beneficial to alleviate the haze pollution in Beijing. Under the unfavorable synoptic situations, emissions mitigation is the sole optimum approach to mitigate the haze pollution in BTH.

​

Fig.1 (a) SFz0 change from 2001 to 2013, and (b) its correlation with the forest LCF change; horizontal distribution of (c) absolute and (d) relative near-surface PM2.5 mass concentration changes caused by the afforestation. The wind field changes are shown in black arrows in (c) and (d). (Image by LI Guohui, et al.)

​

Fig.2 Impacts of an artificial large ventilation corridor system on (a) SFz0 and (b) average near-surface PM2.5 mass concentrations from December 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014, along with the wind field (black arrows). (Image by LI Guohui, et al.)



Does Afforestation Deteriorate Haze Pollution in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), China?---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[JSCh]

China reaches emissions goal early: Study
By Angus McNeice in London | China Daily | Updated: 2018-08-23 00:14

Carbon dioxide emissions in China peaked in 2013 and declined each year between 2014 and 2016. [Photo/VCG]

China may have reached a key emissions target outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement more than a decade ahead of schedule, according to a new study by researchers in Britain.

In 2015, China pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. However, a team of climate scientists from the University of East Anglia, Cambridge University, and University College London has found that emissions in China peaked in 2013 and declined each year between 2014 and 2016, which was the time period studied.

"As the world's top emitting and manufacturing nation, this reversal is cause for cautious optimism among those seeking to stabilize the Earth's climate," said Guan Dabo, a professor of climate change economics at the University of East Anglia and the person who led the study. "Now, the important question is whether the decline in Chinese emissions will persist."

China has committed to reducing emissions along with more than 50 nations as part of a major climate deal known as the Paris Climate Agreement, which was ratified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2016.

The new study, which was published in the journal Nature, found that Chinese emissions peaked at 9.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2013, and then declined by 4.2 percent during the three years that followed.

Researchers attribute the reduction in emissions to changes in industrial structure and a decline in the share of coal used for energy. Decreasing energy and emissions intensity also contributed to the decline.

"We conclude that the decline of Chinese emissions is structural and is likely to be sustained if the growing industrial and energy system transitions continue," said Guan. "Government policies are also a sign that the decline in China’s emissions will carry on."

China recently took the decision to cap coal usage at 4 billion metric tons a year, meaning the proportion of coal in the nation's energy mix is on course to decrease from 64 percent in 2015 to 58 percent by 2020.

Coal is an abundant and relatively inexpensive energy source. However, the fossil fuel is a leading cause of emissions and air pollution in many nations around the world, and the Paris agreement called on participating nations to reduce reliance on coal-burning factories.

"In response to the United States withdrawal from the Paris agreement, China has increasingly assumed a leadership role in climate change mitigation, and its five-year progress reports under the agreement will be heavily scrutinized by the rest of the world," said Guan.

While he said the study is cause for optimism, he warned that China's emissions may fluctuate in the coming years and 2013 may not represent the "final peak".

Preliminary figures for 2017 indicate a possible increase in emissions, while a separate analysis from environmental organization Greenpeace found that emissions in China increased by 4 percent in the first quarter of 2018.

However, the changes in industrial activities, coal use, and efficiency that contributed to the recent decline have roots in the changing structure of China’s economy and long-term government policies, said Guan.

 

[JSCh]

Black dust, fungi stalks converted to rich soil
China Daily / Xinhua | Updated: 2018-08-23 10:29

A worker collects mushrooms in an edible fungi production base in the Miao autonomous county of Songtao, Tongren , Southwest China's Guizhou province, June 20, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

For two decades it has been the primary source of pollution in villages and rivers near Beijing: 20 million metric tons of pulverized fuel ash from a coal-fired power plant.

But for Liu Kefeng, 63, it is a "huge treasure".

After three years of research, a team led by Liu has successfully turned ash into soil that can be used to grow seedlings and make cities greener.

"I didn't know there was such a huge amount of ash, and I was surprised that it could become an ideal material for planting," Liu said.

Covering more than 53 hectares, the ash dump in Luanping county, Hebei province, is just 1 kilometer from the Luanhe River, which supplies water to nine counties and the neighboring port city of Tianjin.

It is also a serious threat to air quality in cities, including Beijing, during dry, windy weather.

In the past, the ash was used as a building material, but technology made it redundant and it began to pile up. Local officials had no idea what to do with it until they found Liu in 2015.

A professor at Beijing University of Agriculture, Liu has studied the reuse of farm waste for 30 years. He helped Beijing suburban villages turn animal dung into organic fertilizers, which cut pollution and raised farmers' incomes.

In 2017, Liu's team developed a new type of nutritional soil using the ash as the main material, supplemented by mushrooms, straw, livestock manure and sawdust. In certain temperatures, humidity and air conditions, the ash ferments and gradually acquires organic substances.

The soil, known as a nutritional substrate, is similar to peat, a natural resource that has been widely used in agriculture and forestry, according to researchers.

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. Because of its rich nutrients, peat is one of the best materials for compound fertilizers and has been used for lawns, golf courses, soccer fields, tennis courts and gardens.

Natural peat land is rare in China, so the country relies on imports. The price of imported peat is up to 600 yuan ($87) per cubic meter, researcher Yang Meng said.

The new soil is expected to cut that cost in half.

One factor in its low price is the reuse of waste from edible fungi.

More than 40 percent of China's mushrooms are produced in Hebei. Mushroom stalks, once considered useless, have been abandoned in villages, adding environmental pressures.

Researchers used the mushroom stalks as a soil inoculant, with beneficial microbes for soil and plant health.

Yang estimated that 72 million cubic meters of mushroom stalks will be consumed in 20 million tons of ash.

The artificial soil has brought accolades to the researchers, and a production plant will offer at least 20 jobs to villagers this year, Yang said.

 

[JSCh]

Study shows air pollution may be causing cognitive decline in people
August 28, 2018 by Bob Yirka, Medical Xpress

Credit: CC0 Public Domain
​

A trio of researchers from Beijing Normal University, Yale University and Peking University has found a link between air pollution and human cognitive decline. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Xin Zhang, Xi Chen, and Xiaobo Zhang outline their study and what they found.

Most everyone knows that air pollution can cause physical ailments, particularly those associated with the lungs, but new evidence suggests it can also cause mental harm. In this new effort, the researchers have built on the findings of other studies that have suggested air pollution can cause cognitive decline.

The study by the trio consisted of carrying out math and verbal testing of 25,000 people living in 162 counties in China and then comparing those results with air pollution conditions. The researchers noted that the tests were given to people of both genders from teens to geriatrics.

In looking at their results the researchers report finding that the higher the levels of pollution the lower the test scores as people grew older. They note that the biggest impact was on males, especially those with less education. The researchers suggest this was likely because less educated men work outside more in China and are thus more exposed to polluted air. They note also that the fact that the decline was seen as progressive over time is a strong indicator of air pollution being the cause, rather than other sources. They suggest their findings offer additional evidence of long-term exposure to air pollution causing a decline in cognitive abilities. They note also that they found some evidence of an increase in the rate of neurodegenerative diseases.

The researchers acknowledge that they do not know how pollution might be causing cognitive decline, but suggest it might have some impact on white matter in the brain, considering the role it plays in coordinating communications between brain regions. Also, it is not clear which air pollution constituent might be to blame. In their study, the researchers tested only for nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and particulates smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter. That left out a whole segment of possibilities including carbon monoxide, ozone and larger particulate matter.

Explore further: Study finds association between air pollution and cognitive decline in women

More information: Xin Zhang et al. The impact of exposure to air pollution on cognitive performance, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1809474115

Abstract
This paper examines the effect of both cumulative and transitory exposures to air pollution for the same individuals over time on cognitive performance by matching a nationally representative longitudinal survey and air quality data in China according to the exact time and geographic locations of the cognitive tests. We find that long-term exposure to air pollution impedes cognitive performance in verbal and math tests. We provide evidence that the effect of air pollution on verbal tests becomes more pronounced as people age, especially for men and the less educated. The damage on the aging brain by air pollution likely imposes substantial health and economic costs, considering that cognitive functioning is critical for the elderly for both running daily errands and making high-stake decisions.​

 

[cirr]

Shanghai puts cash-incentive intelligent dustbins to use

2018-08-28 16:41:40 Ecns.cn Editor : Gu Liping

The smart dustbin in Shanghai’s Zhabei District. (Photo: China News Service/Yin Liqin)


(ECNS) - A residential community in Shanghai’s Zhabei District has put into use smart dustbins amid the city’s campaign to realize household garbage classification by 2020.

Incentives, including cash, were provided to Wangjingyuan residents who use the intelligent sorting and recycling machine composed of four containers for plastics, textile, cans and paper.

A big touchscreen on the machine helps residents perform all kinds of operations, including garbage weighing and identification.

People need to install an app on their mobile phone, scan the QR code on the machine, and select the waste category to use the service. Payment for the recycled material will be transferred to the app once waste is correctly placed inside the machine.

The Shanghai government said that by the end of 2020, the city's household garbage treatment capacity would exceed 32,800 tons a day. Among this, 7,000 tons of wet garbage will be recycled for use. The garbage recycling rate is expected to reach 35 percent.

Shanghai puts cash-incentive intelligent dustbins to use

2018-08-28 16:41:40 Ecns.cn Editor : Gu Liping

The smart dustbin in Shanghai’s Zhabei District. (Photo: China News Service/Yin Liqin)


(ECNS) - A residential community in Shanghai’s Zhabei District has put into use smart dustbins amid the city’s campaign to realize household garbage classification by 2020.

Incentives, including cash, were provided to Wangjingyuan residents who use the intelligent sorting and recycling machine composed of four containers for plastics, textile, cans and paper.

A big touchscreen on the machine helps residents perform all kinds of operations, including garbage weighing and identification.

People need to install an app on their mobile phone, scan the QR code on the machine, and select the waste category to use the service. Payment for the recycled material will be transferred to the app once waste is correctly placed inside the machine.

The Shanghai government said that by the end of 2020, the city's household garbage treatment capacity would exceed 32,800 tons a day. Among this, 7,000 tons of wet garbage will be recycled for use. The garbage recycling rate is expected to reach 35 percent.

 

[JSCh]

1,500 km canal carved out on steep cliffs in Henan, China
New China TV
Published on Aug 28, 2018

Aerial view of 1,500 km-long canal, carved out by tens of thousands of villagers on steep cliffs of central China's Henan Province.

 

[JSCh]

Grid management launched to monitor air pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
China.org.cn, August 29, 2018

China has rolled out a system known as "grid management" to monitor air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the neighboring area, in a bid to carry out targeted pollution control, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The system covers 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the neighboring area, and divides the area into 3 by 3 kilometer square blocks, totaling 36,793. By applying satellite remote sensing technology and other weather statistical analysis, the system selects 3,600 blocks with high PM2.5 concentration levels as the key areas to monitor.

Beijing further separated these blocks into smaller ones, added another 1,500 micro stations and began using mobile monitoring devices, in a bid to better target and monitor air pollution.

Since the system piloted in Cangzhou city, Hebei province last year, environmental authorities have taken great efforts in monitoring heavy air pollution. During the pilot process, the authorities identified 6,325 polluting enterprises, and helped to reduce PM2.5 level in the pilot area by 38.3 percent. The percentage of reduction was higher than the average of 20 percent in Cangzhou, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the grid management system.

In order to rally the local residents to participate in the efforts to reduce pollution and improve air quality, the data collected by the grid system will be released to the public. The cities that fail to meet the requirements will receive warnings from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

According to reports, the system will next be implemented in other areas in China, including 11 cities in the Fenhe-Weihe plain and 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta area.

 

[JSCh]

China is hot spot of ground-level ozone pollution
New study: Ozone levels higher across China than in other countries tracking the air pollutant
Date: August 29, 2018
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

A typical hot summer day on Kunming Lake in northwest Beijing (July 1, 2018). The sky would be blue if it were not for the regional air pollution which turns the sky gray.
Credit: Owen R. Cooper/CIRES and NOAA

In China, people breathe air thick with the lung-damaging pollutant ozone two to six times more often than people in the United States, Europe, Japan, or South Korea, according to a new assessment. By one metric -- total number of days with daily maximum average ozone values (8-hour average) greater than 70 ppb -- China had twice as many high ozone days as Japan and South Korea, three times more than the United States, and six times more than Europe.

"We find that in the most populous urban regions of eastern and central China, there are more than 60 days in a calendar year with surface ozone levels exceeding the Chinese national ozone air quality standard," said Lin Zhang of Peking University, lead author of the study in the current issue of Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

"China has become a hot spot of present-day surface ozone pollution," said Owen Cooper, a co-author on the research paper and a CIRES scientist working in NOAA's Chemical Sciences Division. "Human and vegetation exposure in China is greater than in other developed regions of the world with comprehensive ozone monitoring."

Many countries regulate ozone because of the damage the pollutant does to plants and people.

In the United States, for example, the current health-based standard for ground-level ozone, set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is 70 ppb (based on the maximum daily 8-hour average). The Chinese national ozone air quality standard is a daily maximum 8-hour average greater than 160 micrograms per cubic meter, equivalent to about 80 ppb.

Ground level ozone is most commonly formed when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides react in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight. The burning of fossil fuels and biomass burning (from crop clearing or forest fires) are major sources of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. Since the 1990s, tighter controls on emissions of those ingredients have lessened ozone pollution in many European and U.S. cities. But the extent of surface ozone pollution in China hasn't been widely recognized, in part because there were so few Chinese monitoring sites before 2012, according to the researchers.

For this study, the researchers used data from a relatively new network of 1,600 ozone monitors in China and a massive new global ozone database to quantify ozone levels in China and compare those to the levels in other countries.

The new report shows that China has higher ozone pollution levels than all nations with ozone monitors, including the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Every ozone metric the researchers looked at rose continuously in China over the last five years. "We found the largest increases in ozone exposure in eastern and central China, especially in the most populous areas. These results indicate an increasing severity of human and crop/ecosystem ozone exposure across China," said Xiao Lu in Zhang's group, first author of the study.

In fact, present-day ozone levels in major Chinese cities are comparable to U.S. levels in the 1980s and 1990s. "Ozone levels in Beijing today are similar to Los Angeles in the 1990s, when emission controls were just beginning to have an impact on reducing ozone levels there," said Cooper.

WINTER VS. SUMMER CHALLENGES

For the past several years, wintertime haze pollution has been the main public concern in China and the focus of government action on air pollution, according to Zhang. The Chinese government has implemented stringent emission control measures to improve air quality: Since 2013, the Action Plan on Air Pollution Prevention and Control has reduced the concentration of primary air pollutants and particulate matter an average of 35 percent for 74 major cities.

Zhang and Lu think the harmful effects of surface ozone pollution are much less recognized. "Many people in China do not realize that we may suffer severe ozone pollution under a typical blue sky in summer days. The emerging severity of ozone pollution in China now presents a new challenge for emission control strategies," Zhang said.

OZONE HARMS CROPS

Because ozone can harm plants, including crops, the researchers also investigated the potential for ozone-induced plant damage in China. One vegetation metric they examined captures accumulated ozone exposure exceeding a threshold above which tree growth or crop yield is expected to be reduced, over a crop's typical three-month growing season.

In China, values for that metric were 1.4 -- 2 times higher than in Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the United States. Studies done before 2010 at a few Chinese sites concluded that ozone pollution was already reducing wheat yields up to 6-15 percent. "And because ozone levels in China have increased since then, we would expect to see even greater crop loss now," said Cooper.

TROPOSPHERIC OZONE ASSESSMENT REPORT

The database the researchers used in this analysis is part of the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR), a series of global assessments of ozone pollution and its relevance to people, plants, and climate. CIRES' Owen Cooper is chair of the research project's steering committee. "This is exactly the kind of follow-on assessment we hoped TOAR would inspire," he said.

According to lead author Zhang, scientists have known that there are high surface ozone levels in present-day China; what they didn't know was how China's ozone pollution compared with other industrialized countries in terms of magnitude, frequency, human, and vegetation exposure. "Our study presents such a novel comparison by combining the Chinese ozone data with the TOAR dataset," said Zhang.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Xiao Lu, Jiayun Hong, Lin Zhang, Owen R. Cooper, Martin G. Schultz, Xiaobin Xu, Tao Wang, Meng Gao, Yuanhong Zhao, Yuanhang Zhang. Severe Surface Ozone Pollution in China: A Global Perspective. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 2018; 5 (8): 487 DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00366

China is hot spot of ground-level ozone pollution: New study: Ozone levels higher across China than in other countries tracking the air pollutant -- ScienceDaily

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 28-AUG-2018
Scientists pinpoint the key mechanism foe amplification of global warming
SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Since the advent of the industrial revolution in the early 19th century, increases in greenhouse gas emission are thought by scientists to have steadily driven the increase in global-mean surface temperature, known as global warming. This phenomenon is expected to affect humans through sea-level rise and frequent heat waves, among other adverse impacts. The high complexity of the climate system, however, has made it difficult for scientists to accurately predict the magnitude of global warming in the future and the severity of its impacts. Chief among the issues is that the complex interactions among the many components of the climate system amplify or suppress the warming triggered by the increase in greenhouse gases and unraveling these connections and their importance for global warming is difficult. A new study co-authored by Xiaoming Hu, Ming Cai, Song Yang, and Sergio Sejas published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences provides new insights into how these interactions amplify global warming.

"Processes of positive climate feedbacks, such as increases in water vapor in the atmosphere and melting of ice/snow on the surface, are responsible for the amplified warming", said Xiaoming Hu Ph.D., an Associate Research Scientist at the School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, in Guangzhou, China and the lead author of the paper. "However, the changes in air temperature have been traditionally categorized as a negative climate feedback process as warmer air acts to increase the thermal radiation going out to space. The recent development of surface-based climate feedback analysis tools allows a fresh new look at the role of air temperature in regulating surface temperature response to climate forcing."

Scientists have long known that the atmosphere, on the one hand, is transparent to visible light, which allows the surface to absorb most of the solar energy available to the Earth-Atmosphere system; on the other hand, however, it absorbs most of the thermal energy emitted by the surface, due to its "greenhouse" gas components, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, clouds, and methane that warm the atmosphere. In return, the atmosphere emits thermal energy back to the surface providing additional energy to the surface keeping its warmth (or the "greenhouse" effect"). The authors of this study show that such thermal-radiative coupling between the atmosphere and the surface, which they refer to as the (air) "temperature feedback", acts to amplify the surface warming in response to an external forcing, the same way as it keeps the time mean surface temperature approximately 30 °C warmer than that determined by just considering solar energy input to the surface alone.

In this study, the authors put forward the air temperature feedback kernel to measure the ability of the temperature feedback in amplifying surface warming. They used observations (the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast. Re-Analysis Interim, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.828) to reveal the spatial pattern of the air temperature feedback kernel and relate the strength of air temperature feedback to the climatological spatial distributions of air temperature, water vapor, and cloud content. "Such strong dependency of the ability of the temperature feedback in amplifying surface warming on the climatological mean state perhaps is one of the root causes for a large range of global warming projections under the same anthropogenic forcing by different climate models as these models often tend to have their own climatological mean states", said Xiaoming Hu.

The researchers likewise reveal that increases in carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere mainly warm the surface through the air temperature feedback. They find that air temperature feedback amplifies the warming due to the direct radiative effect caused by the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by a factor of 3-4. It also amplifies the surface warming due to the increase in atmospheric moisture from the period of 1984-1995 to 2002-2013. Most importantly, they find that the thermal-radiative coupling between the atmosphere and surface amplifies the signal of oceanic heat uptake, adding 2.5 W/m2 to the surface on top of 1.75 W/m2 due to a reduction of oceanic heat uptake between these two periods.

The authors further state that an implication of the study is that the amplification of the warming signals of these processes by the temperature feedback indicates that warming uncertainties related to the uncertainty of these processes can also be amplified. "For example, the uncertainty in the water vapor increase implies uncertainty in its warming signal, and this uncertainty is then amplified by the temperature feedback. Global warming uncertainty in climate model projections and observations are thus likely linked to the temperature feedback. Making the reduction of global warming uncertainty is a more inextricable task", said Sergio Sejas, one of the four authors of this study.

Overall, this observation based study corroborates the findings of a recent climate model based analysis showing that "the temperature feedback is responsible for most of the surface warming globally, accounting for nearly 76% of the global-mean surface warming" (https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-15-0287.1).

###​

This research was funded by National Key Scientific Research Plan of China (No. 2014CB953900).

See the article: X. Hu, M. Cai, S. Yang, and S. Sejas, 2018: Air temperature feedback and its contribution to global warming. SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s11430-017-9226-6. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11430-017-9226-6



Scientists pinpoint the key mechanism foe amplification of global warming | EurekAlert! Science News

 

[Super Falcon]

enviornment cleaning is a big issue and each and every one as a individual should concerned about it today or tommorow it might effect on our life mother nature wont give us much time when it wil get out of our hands better prepare for tommorow today

 

[JSCh]

China Focus: China-made degradable plastics promise end to ocean pollution
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 13:52:40|Editor: Liangyu


BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have developed a plastic that degrades in seawater and could help curb the increasingly serious plastic pollution in the oceans.

The new polyester composite material can decompose in seawater over a period ranging from a few days to several hundred days, leaving small molecules that cause no pollution, said Wang Gexia, a senior engineer at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"For a long time, people focused on 'white pollution' on land. Plastic pollution in the seas only caught people's attention when more and more reports about marine animals dying from it appeared in recent years," said Wang.

About 4.8 million to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste goes into the seas very year, accounting for 60 percent to 80 percent of the total solid pollutants in the oceans, according to a conservative estimate by scientists.

Due to human activities and ocean currents, most of the waste gathers in the north and south Pacific, the north and south Atlantic and the central Indian Ocean.

French media reported that a plastic waste concentration in the ocean between California and Hawaii could be as large as 3.5 million square kilometers, or seven times the territory of France - and growing by 80,000 square kilometers a year.

The World Economic Forum has also warned that the total weight of plastic wastes in the oceans would surpass the total weight of marine fish in 2050.

Almost all the types of plastics are found at sea, either floating on the surface or sinking to the bottom, and they cannot decompose for decades or even centuries, said Wang.

The effects of sunlight, salt weathering, ocean currents and organisms turn plastics into tiny fragments under 5 millimeters long, which are a major threat to marine life. Many albatrosses and turtles die from gastrointestinal problems after eating plastics.

A shocking scientific survey showed that over 90 percent of sea birds died from eating plastics.

"We still lack effective methods to cope with the serious plastic pollution," Wang said.

"We cannot collect and deal with the garbage dispersed in the oceans as we do on land. The most feasible solution is to let the materials degrade and disappear,"she said.

The Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry is one of the leading research institutions in China to develop biodegradable plastics that naturally-occurring microbes can decompose into carbon dioxide and water.

The institute has authorized four Chinese enterprises to use their technology, with three enterprises going into production with a total annual capacity of half the global biodegradable plastics, or 75,000 tonnes.

Realizing the serious plastic pollution in oceans, the researchers aimed to develop materials degradable in seawater, but they found plastics that decompose quickly on land are unable to degrade easily at sea.

They combined non-enzymic hydrolysis, water dissolution and biodegradation processes to design and invent the new material.

The research was recently selected as one of 30 winning projects at a contest of innovative future technologies in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. The contest encouraged young Chinese scientists to conceive groundbreaking technologies and trigger innovation.

China has given top priority to ecological environmental protection, contributing Chinese wisdom to resolving global pollution.

 

[JSCh]

China develops on-site water pollutant monitoring method
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 21:45:42|Editor: ZX


BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have developed a new method for on-site water pollutant monitoring, which is more convenient and efficient than traditional sampling methods.

Pollutants such as medicine and wastewater generated from industry production pose a threat to the water safety. Simple and effective monitoring methods are necessary to ensure safe drinking water.

Traditional monitoring methods often include complex sample preparation process. Scientists from the Institute of Urban Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences invented a PVC film that is flexible, ultralight and could float on the surface of the water and firmly contact water even under harsh environmental conditions.

The PVC film can absorb pollutants in water and with a portable spectrometer, on-site monitoring of water pollutants can be achieved without frequent sampling.

The research provides a promising approach to improve the efficiency of water pollutant monitoring. The research was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

 

[JSCh]

E-vehicle batteries to be recycled in green push
By Jing Shuiyu | China Daily | Updated: 2018-09-10 10:30

Technicians check e-vehicle batteries at a plant of Tianneng Group in Anhui province. [Photo by Wang Biao/For China Daily]

China is planning ahead for recycling electric vehicle batteries, in a bid to ensure the industry's healthy development and create a sustainable environment, officials and experts said.

Their comments came as the first batch of lithium batteries, which are commonly used in e-vehicle production, are forecast to end their service life in coming years. Without proper disposal, the used batteries will pollute the environment.

Xin Guobin, a vice-minister of industry and information technology, said improving the system of recycling and utilizing the used batteries is an important measure to protect the environment. "It is not only conducive to environmental protection, but also good for recycling resources."

He made the comments in late July at the launch of a national platform to track the entire life cycle of e-vehicle batteries from production to disposal.

The establishment of such a platform, according to Xin, is a milestone in facilitating the sector's sustainable development.

It can help ensure that sources of the batteries are traceable, so the government can effectively supervise the companies concerned to recycle the batteries at the end of their life cycle, he said.

The country's e-vehicle market grew rapidly as the government continued its strong push for green transport. Recycling has thus become an increasingly significant part of China's e-vehicle supply chain.

The average service life of lithium batteries is five to eight years. Metal resources like copper, cobalt and nickel in the batteries also have high recycling value.

The China Automotive Technology and Research Center estimated that the country would see 120,000 to 200,000 metric tons of batteries disposed of between 2018 and 2020, and 350,000 tons in 2025.

Since 2016, the Chinese government has been urging the makers of e-vehicles to build a recycling network for used batteries, and use an after-sales network to recycle used batteries.

In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a notice that Chinese cities and regions would encourage automakers to establish recycling service outlets and cooperate with battery producers, used-car dealers and scrap merchants to build regional recycling systems.

The ministry said it would strictly control the number of new enterprises involved in battery recycling and make full use of existing recycling bases in China, with a goal to promote the industry's sustainable development.

Inspired by such government guidance, a number of Chinese companies are exploring effective ways to reuse battery modules.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co collects used e-vehicle batteries and reuses them in other fields, and the recovery rate has reached 99 percent, said Bo Geren, chief technology officer of the company.

According to Bo, the world's largest e-vehicle battery producer by sales has mastered the key technologies of the whole industry chain, ranging from materials, research and development, to manufacturing and recycling.

Brunp Recycling Technology Co is building a factory in Changsha, Hunan province, with an annual capacity to recycle 100,000 tons of used batteries.

Li Changdong, chairman of Brunp, said the recycling base, worth 1.2 billion yuan, is expected to start operations by 2021.

China's concerted efforts to recycle batteries have been driven by the rapid growth of the e-vehicles industry.

In the first half of this year, the country produced 413,000 new energy vehicles, up almost 95 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Sales more than doubled to 412,000 units.

Last year, 777,000 new energy vehicles were sold in the China market, up 53.3 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

 

[JSCh]

Spotlight: China applauded for leading int'l efforts in tackling climate change
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-13 13:19:52|Editor: Liangyu


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's efforts to combat climate change have yielded fruitful results and its leadership will be vital in the future as countries join hands to tackle the urgent problem, government officials and industry leaders said on Wednesday.

"China's leadership has been truly outstanding. I want to repeat the gratitude people around the world feel for China," said Al Gore, former vice president of the United States, at the China Pavilion during the ongoing Global Climate Action Summit here.

He said it is high time that countries stepped up financing clean energy and phased out subsidies of fossil fuels as consequences of climate crisis such as increasing occurrence of major storms are beginning to awaken people all over the world.

"It is significant that China is also the global leader in financing renewable energy," he said.

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, China's investment in clean energy stood at 132.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the global total.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies accounted for around 60 percent of total annual solar cell manufacturing capacity globally last year, data from the International Energy Agency showed.

Nicholas Stern, chair of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science, said that China should be in the leading position to enhance actions on climate change.

Stern said infrastructure will double in the next 15 years, the world economy will double in about 20 to 25 years, and the population of the cities will double in the next 40 years. In the meantime, greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut by at least 30 percent in the next two decades.

"It couldn't be simpler in the sense that we have to find the new growth story," said Stern, and this is exactly where China's leadership should come in.

Stern showed the audience a graph of China's emission in the 21st century, which, with ups and downs, indicates a development path. "China is not only acting itself, it's carrying very powerful messages for development around the world," he said.

He added that through the "extremely important and positive" Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China will be able to show roughly half of the world's population that achieving growth does not necessarily result in damage to the climate.

China Pavilion is a three-day affiliated event series during the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit that brings together government officials of China and the United States, businesses, and organizations to share their climate progress and to advance international cooperation.

The event is hosted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China and the western U.S. state of California, with support from Energy Foundation.

China and the state of California have a longstanding, successful partnership on climate and clean energy. Keynote speakers at the event pointed out the importance for the two sides to enhance cooperation and lead global efforts.

California, whose economy ranks the fifth in the world, has set a goal to mandate carbon-free electricity by 2045 under legislation signed Monday by Governor Jerry Brown.

In the meantime, the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen's experience of simultaneously achieving air quality and carbon emission goals was shared and praised during panel discussions.

A metropolis and major manufacturing hub developed from a fishing village 40 years ago, Shenzhen plans to peak the city's carbon emissions by 2022.

Eric Heitz, CEO and co-founder of Energy Foundation, said these stories about prosperous low carbon development will be the "main course" of the 21st century.

"It is just great to see this cooperation here today between California and China, and to watch innovations by each actor, and to see how these policies can move rapidly around the world," said Heitz.

About 4,500 delegates from city and regional governments, as well as industries and research institutions, attended the Global Climate Action Summit that opened on Wednesday.

The three-day gathering will be a launchpad for deeper worldwide commitments and accelerated action by countries that can put the globe on track to prevent dangerous climate change and realize the historic Paris Agreement.