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

[JSCh]

14:51, 09-Sep-2019
Chinese scientists find new way to break down antibiotic in sewage
Updated 15:39, 09-Sep-2019
CGTN

Chinese scientists have discovered a new method to deal with wastewater and break down antibiotics, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The novel technology, called low-temperature plasma, can rapidly and efficiently disintegrate antibiotic residue like norfloxacin, oxytetracycline and oxytetracycline in medical wastewater, the researchers found.

Antibiotics used in clinical treatment, pharmacy industry, as well as fish breeding and poultry, remain in the sewage. Without treatment, the wastewater poses harmful impacts to both ecological balance and human health.

In collaboration with companies, a team led by Huang Qing from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science conducted in-depth experiments on the antibiotic, norfloxacin.

The researchers employed a low-temperature oxygen-plasma device to generate ozone, which produces a defluorination reaction with norfloxacin, resulting in efficient and rapid degradation of the antibiotic. Experiments also show effectiveness to other antibiotics including terramycin, tetracycline, aureomycin, and doxycycline.

The treatment technology is simple and cost-effective, said the researchers, adding that it won't produce secondary pollution. It has been successfully applied in more than 40 cases of sewage treatment.

The discovery was published in the international journal Chemosphere.

Plasma, considered as the "fourth state" of matter other than solid, liquid and gas, has shown broad application prospects in many fields such as industry, agriculture and biomedicine.

 

[JSCh]

Environmental pollution in China begins decreasing -- ScienceDaily
September 13, 2019
University of Gothenburg

For decades pollution in China has paralleled economic growth. But this connection has been weakened in recent years, according to a new international research study published in the Science Advances journal.

The study was conducted by an international team of researchers from five countries, including Deliang Chen, a professor of physical meteorology at the University of Gothenburg and a Coordinating Lead Author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"Our research shows that increased environmental awareness and investments in China over the past decade have produced results," says Chen.

Economic growth has come at a high price

In the late 1970s China's economy began expanding, and the expansion accelerated during the following decades. Environmental pollution kept pace with economic growth.

"But the analysis of our data shows a weakening of that relationship for China starting in 1995," Chen says.

Researchers have studied statistics for economic growth, environmental conditions, regional differences, the gap between urban and rural areas, social inequality, land-based impacts on the ocean, equality in education, health care and living standards in China during the 1977-2017 period. The research results are based on huge amounts of "big data."

"In our study we have looked at the data from all areas based on the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As researchers, we normally tend to look at our own data, but in this study, we have used existing data from many different sources."

Major challenges remain, despite progress

The study shows that environmental pollution in China as a whole has begun to decline, but that greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase.

The study also shows that China has improved in 12 of the 17 SDGs during the last 40 years, while major problems still exist in the other five.

"China's economic growth has not come without great sacrifice and with negative consequences for the environment and climate. But it is still encouraging to note these improvements. At the same time, it reminds us of the urgent need to solve major problems such as increased greenhouse gas emissions and inequality of income.

Many believe that economic progress and pollution have to go hand in hand. But our study shows that this connection has become weaker in recent years in China. And it provides a little more hopeful picture. This hope and the lessons learned in China can be interesting for other countries that also need to be developed."

Big data is digitally stored information so massive (usually terabytes and petabytes) that it is difficult to process with traditional database methods.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Gothenburg. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.​

Journal Reference:

1. Yonglong Lu, Yueqing Zhang, Xianghui Cao, Chenchen Wang, Yichao Wang, Meng Zhang, Robert C. Ferrier, Alan Jenkins, Jingjing Yuan, Mark J. Bailey, Deliang Chen, Hanqin Tian, Hong Li, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Zhongxiang Zhang. Forty years of reform and opening up: China’s progress toward a sustainable path. Science Advances, 2019; 5 (8): eaau9413 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau9413

 

[JSCh]

19 SEP 2019 PRESS RELEASE
Chinese initiative Ant Forest wins UN Champions of the Earth award | UNEP

• Ant Forest, awarded United Nations’ top environmental honour in inspiration and action category
• Ant Forest recognized for inspiring consumers to reduce their carbon footprint, resulting in China’s largest private sector tree-planting initiative

19 September 2019 -- Ant Forest, a green initiative, has received a 2019 Champions of the Earth award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, for turning the green good deeds of half a billion people into real trees planted in some of China’s most arid regions.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognized Ant Forest in the ‘Inspiration and Action’ category.

Launched by Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba affiliate, Ant Forest promotes greener lifestyles by inspiring users to reduce carbon emissions in their daily lives and better protect the environment.

Ant Forest users are encouraged to record their low-carbon footprint through daily actions like taking public transport or paying utility bills online. For each action, they receive ‘green energy’ points and when they accumulate a certain number of points, an actual tree is planted. Users can view images of their trees in real-time via satellite. In addition to tree-planting, users can choose to protect certain size of conservation land on Ant Forest platform, which is also exploring innovative solutions to alleviate poverty and improve the lives of local people by leveraging the power of digital technology.

Since its launch in August 2016, Ant Forest and its NGO partners have planted around 122 million trees in some of China’s driest areas, including in arid regions in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Shanxi. The trees cover an area of 112,000 hectares (1.68 million mu); the project has become China’s largest private sector tree-planting initiative.

“Ant Forest shows how technology can transform our world by harnessing the positive energy and innovation of global users,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

“Although the environmental challenges we face are daunting, we have the technology and the knowledge to overcome them and fundamentally redesign how we interact with the planet. Initiatives like Ant Forest tap into the best of human ingenuity and innovation to create a better world,” she said.

The need for radical global action on climate change will be highlighted at UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September. The Secretary-General has urged world leaders, businesses and civil society to come to the summit with concrete ideas of how they will cut emissions by 45 per cent in the next decade and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Summit will focus on developing ambitious solutions in specific areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy; and sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans.

Ant Forest’s recognition as a Champion of the Earth highlights the importance of ecosystem restoration in reducing the emissions fuelling climate change. In March, the United Nations underlined the urgent need to protect the natural systems that sustain life by declaring the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration from 2021-2030.

“We are truly honoured to receive this Champions of the Earth award,” said Eric Jing, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ant Financial. “Alipay Ant Forest reflects our belief that technology can and should be harnessed for social good. We are grateful to our many users and partners who have joined our efforts to plant 122 million trees and advance a shared vision of sustainable and inclusive development. Alipay Ant Forest’s popularity shows that the public is ready to take action to combat climate change,” he said.

Champions of the Earth is the UN’s flagship global environmental award. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) established the award in 2005 to celebrate outstanding figures whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment. From world leaders to environmental defenders and technology inventors, the awards recognise trailblazers who are working to protect our planet for the next generation.

Ant Forest is among five winners this year. The other categories are Policy Leadership, Entrepreneurial Vision and Science and Innovation. The 2019 laureates will be honoured at a gala ceremony in New York on 26 September during the 74th UN General Assembly. Also honoured at the event will be seven environmental trailblazers between the ages of 18 and 30, who will take home the coveted Young Champions of the Earth prize.

The Champions of the Earth awards have previously recognised Chinese innovations and change-makers, particularly in the fields of tackling pollution and desertification. In 2018, the Zhejiang Green Rural Revival Programme won the award for inspiration and action for its work to regenerate polluted waterways and damaged lands; and in 2017, the Saihanba Afforestation Community was recognised in the inspiration and action category for transforming degraded land on the southern edge of Inner Mongolia into a lush paradise.

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[JSCh]

Integrated system developed to monitor air pollution in offshore areas
Source: Xinhua| 2019-09-22 09:50:30|Editor: Xiaoxia

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have developed an integrated system to conduct comprehensive monitoring of air pollution in offshore areas, according to the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).

The system is comprised of more than 30 monitoring devices including detection laser radar, in-situ detection sensor for carbon dioxide and aerosol particle spectrometer. It has been installed in the offshore area in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province for a one-month test. It will help obtain meteorological parameters and distribution characteristics of major pollutants in Shenzhen's offshore area.

Led by Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the CAS, the monitoring system was coordinated by many organizations including the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under the CAS and National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center.

Offshore areas have complex environmental conditions such as high humidity and high salt content. They are characterized by the coexistence of multiple pollutants.

The system will conduct multi-dimensional monitoring and collect multivariate data to ensure high-resolution observation. It will support the construction of a national environmental monitoring network and provide technical support air pollution control in offshore areas, according to the CAS.

 

[JSCh]

New forests help battle sandstorms
By YANG WANLI/MAO WEIHUA | China Daily | Updated: 2019-10-07 07:28

People walk across a bridge in the man-made woods in Makit county, Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. In 2012, the local government launched a project to convert about 66,000 hectares of desert on the county outskirts into woods. [Photo by ZHANG GUIGUI/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Disastrous sandstorms are familiar to 77-year-old Abula Amat, who lives in Makit county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"Before I was 18 years old, my family had relocated at least four times due to the storms. A severe sandstorm would bury half of our house, leaving the pots and bowls in the kitchen full of sand," he said.

A river once ran through the village, he said, but the river channel changed several times due to the sandstorms.

"Both villagers and livestock severely lacked water and we were forced to move from one place to another," said Abula Amat.

Makit is in the eastern part of Kashgar prefecture on the southwestern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, one of the largest deserts in the world, spanning more than 1,000 kilometers across southern Xinjiang.

The county's environment is very fragile, with 90 percent of its area desert.

In 2012, a government-led project was launched to plant forests, aiming to bringing more green to the sand-hit region.

Efforts from residents and the forestry department have led to the planting of 20,000 hectares of forests comprised of saxaul and poplar－two drought-resistant trees whose roots bind the sand and prevent invasive sandstorms.

According to local meteorological authorities, Makit saw 100 millimeters of rainfall in 2018, compared with only half that amount a decade ago. Meanwhile, sandstorms only occur about 50 days a year, from about 150 in 2009.

In addition to combating desertification, the greening project has also contributed to the fight against poverty.

According to the local forestry department, 230 residents from poor households were hired as forest rangers, each earning a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan ($560).

The greenbelt keeps out the wind and sand, as well as providing people the opportunity to plant some traditional Chinese herbs, such as cistanche, or desert broomrape, which they can sell.

In 2016, the county built a cistanche production center covering 1,330 hectares.

Last year, the production of cistanche brought local farmers an income of 40 million yuan, according to Amat Mamat, the secretary of the desertification department at the county's forestry bureau.

"I am so happy to see the current achievement," said Amat Mamat proudly. "Years ago, the county was so hot and seldom received rain. People saw a thick layer of dust almost every morning when they woke up. But now it rains a lot. Our efforts to control desertification have been rewarded."

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[JSCh]

NEWS RELEASE 7-OCT-2019
China is on track to meet its ultra-low emissions goals for 2020
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Ultra-low emissions control equipment in China
CREDIT: Ling Tang, Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Beihang University; Jiabao Qu, Ministry of Environmental Protection and HeBei University of Science and Technology; Zhifu Mi, UCL; Xin Bo, Ministry of Environmental Protection and the University of Science and Technology; Xiangyu Chang, Xi'an Jiaotong University; Laura Diaz Anadon, University of Cambridge; Shouyang Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Xiaoda Xue, Beihang University; Shibei Li, Ministry of Environmental Protection; Xin Wang, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Xiaohong Zhao; Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Polluting emissions from Chinese thermal power plants declined significantly between 2014 and 2017, according to research involving UCL.

The reductions are important in helping to control China's national emissions which could lead to an improvement in air quality and considerable health benefits.

A team of experts from the UK and China analysed emissions from coal, oil, natural gas and biomass power plants, with a focus on coal-fired power plants as the major contributors to ambient air pollution.

The study, published today in Nature Energy, analysed data from 2014, when China introduced the ambitious Ultra-Low Emissions (ULE) Standards Policy for renovating coal-fired power stations to limit air pollutant emissions, to 2017.

The team found that between 2014 and 2017, China's annual power plant emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter dropped by 65%, 60% and 72% each year respectively from 2.21, 3.11 and 0.52 million tonnes in 2014 to 0.77, 1.26 and 0.14 million tonnes in 2017, which is in compliance with ULE standards.

This means that China looks to be on track to further reduce its emissions if all thermal power plants meet the ULE standards by 2020. These standards aim to limit the sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions to 35, 50 and 10 milligrams per cubic metre respectively.

UCL co-author Dr Zhifu Mi (UCL Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management) said: "This is encouraging news for China, as well as other countries wishing to reduce their power emissions. Thermal power plants combusting coal, oil, natural gas and biomass are one of the major contributors to global air pollution.

"These significant emission reductions demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of controlling emissions from power plants to reach ultra-low levels, which is an important step towards reducing the number of deaths attributable to air pollution."

The study shows that previous methods of estimating Chinese power emissions overestimated numbers by at least 18%, and in some cases up to 92%. This is because previous research was carried out using ex-ante studies - estimations made ahead of the introduction of ULE standards - which looked at how the standards might affect emissions based on assumptions of changes in emission concentrations.

The research is the first to use data on emission concentrations collected by China's Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems network (CEMS) which covers 96-98% of Chinese thermal power capacity.

The team constructed a nationwide emissions dataset - the China Emissions Accounts for Power Plants (CEAP) - based on data collected from the CEMS network between 2014 and 2017.

CEAP is now publicly available and continues to present, organise and analyse data from the network. This gives accurate results for each power plant as well as real-time results on an hourly frequency.

"With coal being the most widely-used fuel in China, cutting the number of thermal power plants within a short timeframe would be challenging. The results of this research are encouraging in demonstrating that coal can be used in a much cleaner way to generate electricity," concluded Dr Mi.


China is on track to meet its ultra-low emissions goals for 2020 | EurekAlert! Science News

Ling Tang, Jiabao Qu, Zhifu Mi, Xin Bo, Xiangyu Chang, Laura Diaz Anadon, Shouyang Wang, Xiaoda Xue, Shibei Li, Xin Wang, Xiaohong Zhao. Substantial emission reductions from Chinese power plants after the introduction of ultra-low emissions standards. Nature Energy (2019); DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0468-1​

 

[JSCh]

Citizen Science App Helping Clean Up China’s Polluted Water Bodies, Study Says
By Matthew Walsh / Oct 09, 2019 02:07 PM / Environment

Photo: VCG

A government-backed citizen science app that allows people to report “black and smelly” bodies of water is helping flag overlooked sites of urban water pollution and strengthen accountability for cleaning them up, even as the app’s limited uptake and partial follow-up work hinders remediation efforts.

That’s according to new research published Friday by the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Researchers found users of the Black and Smelly Waters App were indeed flagging bodies of water with poor water quality, and that the reports appeared to be spurring action. Within months, those targeted tended to see significant falls in chemical oxygen demand — a sign of improved water quality.

The paper builds on previous research published in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning that concluded growing use of the app “has promise in addressing the implementation and participation gaps in China’s environmental management.”

“In China, it’s often difficult to ensure that national environmental policies are implemented at the local level,” Angel Hsu, assistant professor of environmental studies at Yale-NUS College and the lead author of both papers, told Caixin by email. “Our research suggests emerging forms of technology could harness citizen engagement to help overcome this longstanding challenge to environmental management.”

Launched by China’s environment and housing ministries in 2016, the Black and Smelly Waters app can be accessed via the ubiquitous social messaging platform WeChat. It allows citizens to record the location of potentially polluted bodies of water, upload photographs and descriptions of them, and rank them according to how putrid, off-color, or trash-laden they are. Government agencies are then supposed to follow up on the reports within seven working days. The app also tracks the progress of remediation efforts after officials acquiesce to citizens’ complaints.

Despite the app’s promise, challenges remain at both the uptake and implementation levels, the studies found. In a sample of more than 8,500 reports taken between February 2016 and May 2018, some 22% were made in Beijing, while high proportions also originated from the relatively developed provinces of Shandong, Hunan, and Guangdong. Less-developed provinces with fewer city dwellers produced “very few” reports, researchers noted.

Additionally, the number of complaints the researchers analyzed still “far outnumbered” reports of progress in remediating polluted sites. Approximately 60% of reports were still being addressed by officials, while only around one third were listed as “completed,” indicating the total remediation of the site, researchers said.

Decades of breakneck industrial growth left China’s waterways in a bleak state, but in recent years the government has vowed to clean up the mess. China aims to reduce the number of “black and smelly” water bodies to less than 10% of urban waters by 2020 and fully eradicate the problem by 2030.

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com)



https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-1...lluted-water-bodies-study-says-101469072.html

 

[JSCh]

October 10, 2019
Scientists find recipe for greener garden waste disposal
Adding manure and crop leftovers to leaves and clippings helps earthworms digest them—and speeds up composting by 80 per cent, researchers find.

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Working with colleagues in China, U of A soil scientists found a recipe that helps earthworms digest garden waste more easily, making composting much faster and possibly helping to keep millions of tonnes of plant waste from being burned or dumped in landfills. (Photo: Getty Images)
By BEV BETKOWSKI

Scientists have developed a recipe that addresses a growing need for sustainable disposal of urban garden waste in China and could also be useful in North America.

In Beijing, where the research was based, more than 2.3 million tonnes of leaves and clippings from trees, grass and bushes are shipped annually to landfills or burned, which takes an environmental toll, said U of A soil scientist and study co-author Scott Chang.

“While garden waste itself isn’t a form of pollution, different ways of dealing with it have implications,” he explained.

• RELATED: Studies suggest boreal forests can handle oilsands development
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The formula uses cattle manure and crop leftovers like straw and wheat bran used to grow mushrooms—a diet staple in China.

Composting the waste—feeding it to earthworms to convert into a nutrient-rich soil conditioner—is more environmentally friendly, but poses a challenge for the wrigglers because they have difficulty feeding on lignin, a hard-to-digest organic compound in the plant matter.

To make it easier, Chang and researchers from Beijing Forestry University experimented with adding varying amounts of manure and mushroom crop materials to improve the digestibility of the garden waste for the worms.

Both substances contain high amounts of carbon that is easily broken down by the worm’s gut microbes. They also add extra nutrients to the resulting compost.

The worms thrived, showing increased survival rates, size, and juvenile and cocoon numbers.

“All of this indicates how happy the earthworms were,” Chang said.

The additives also sped up the composting process by 80 per cent.

“This way, the large amount of garden waste material can be dealt with quickly, reducing the need for storage and reducing the likelihood of sending it to landfills,” explained Chang.

The study’s findings are now being tested by a Beijing company that produces agricultural compost, as well as earthworms used to produce protein powder for human consumption.

A similar compost formula would need tweaking for North American markets depending on the type and supply of manure and other materials available, but could be useful, Chang believes.

“We now know that when dealing with waste that has high lignin content, adding easily degradable material will help worms in the composting process. We can borrow some ideas from this study, and it has potential implications for how we might better compost our plant waste here.”

The discovery adds to the ever-evolving science underpinning composting practices, Chang added.

“Every waste material is different, so we need to always be developing new methods.”


Scientists find recipe for greener garden waste disposal | University of Alberta

 

[JSCh]

NEWS RELEASE 15-OCT-2019
On the causes of regional haze
SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

The ravages of smog have caused concern about its causes. In terms of macroscopic causes, the "meteorological conditions", "combustion, industrial pollution", "influence around the city" and "atmospheric passage transportation" and other theories only give superficial or qualitative expressions. A recent study has given a quantitative theory of the physical and lumped chemical origin of secondary fine particles in haze. The paper entitled " The macroscopic mechanisms and associated atmospheric precursor environmental capacities that lead to secondary fine particle pollution" was Published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences recently. The authors were Xu Dahai and Chen Junming, researchers at the Chinese academy of meteorological sciences.

Currently, the management and control methods of secondary fine particles, the main components of haze, can be roughly divided into two categories in terms of academic knowledge: responsible source tracking and total emission control. The primary control of air pollution by the method of liability source tracing has achieved good results? however, due to the uncertainty of atmospheric flows and the complexity of pollution scenarios, it is very difficult to further accurately track the source of responsibility, and when the emission sources in some areas are treated with simplified tracing method, the problem of "one size fits all" is easy to appear.

Total emission control of air pollutants has long been an important control method. If the total allowable emissions are below the atmospheric capacity, the possibility of large-scale, high-intensity pollution is very small, but unfortunately the current definition of atmospheric capacity is not very clear. With defined atmospheric capacity as the total allowable emissions, the capacity determined by the baseline meteorological conditions, a given monitoring point, a specified list of sources and a simulation tool with chemical processes is related to the above four conditions, so its climate statistical characteristics are difficult to be objectively estimated. If the atmospheric capacity is thought to be determined by the ability of the atmosphere to remove pollutants from it, then the given capacity is only related to climate characteristics, and its statistical parameters can be easily determined. However, how to define the self-cleaning ability of the atmosphere and express the process of air pollution together with other characteristic parameters of air pollution, such as source intensity, concentration and polluting species, has not been an effective solution, thus limiting the development of this idea of air quality control. This paper solves this problem on the level of mechanism analysis.

In this paper, the researchers defined the atmospheric physical self-purification ability and the overall chemical conversion ability as the driving force, established the atmospheric chemical dynamics equations, theoretical analysis of the key factors forming secondary fine particles, and clarified the macro mechanism of each factor and its synergistic effect. The solution of the equations expresses the variation law of the concentration of secondary fine particles and their precursors under the action of atmospheric self-purification force and chemical transformation, and can also be used to calculate the atmospheric environmental capacity of the precursors forming secondary fine particles. The solution of the equation also reveals the dependence of the concentration of secondary fine particles on the size of the polluted area or urban built-up area. The irrational expansion of urban area will sharply reduce the atmospheric self-purification capacity per unit area, and lead to the sharp increase of secondary pollutants under the condition of quiet and small wind.

In addition, the paper gives the atmospheric environmental capacity of lumped precursors (including conventional pollutants SO2, NOx and NH3) with different recurrence periods in different regions by using the time-by-time records distributed in meteorological stations for 40 years and various relevant data collected at present. At the same time, the distribution of the clearance rate of precursors per unit area with different recurrence periods is given.



On the causes of regional haze | EurekAlert! Science News

 

[JSCh]

Northern China desert sets example in combating desertification
Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/17 20:43:43

Wetland appears in Kubuqi Desert, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Photo: VCG

Kubuqi Desert was once known as "the forbidden zone of life," and "sea of death." Grass could not grow in Kubuqi, and almost no one lived there.

Located in Erdos, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it is the desert closest to China's capital Beijing, which is also how the 18,600-square kilometer desert came to be known as "a bowl of sand over Beijing's head."

However, Kubuqi has witnessed a "miracle" in confronting desertification.

In the past 30 years, the government, companies, social organizations and local farmers and herdsmen have worked together to transform Kubuqi desert.

Now, vegetation coverage has reached 53 percent in the desert from less than 1 percent 30 years ago.

Not a joke

Planting trees was considered a joke to people in Kubuqi desert.

Historically, Kubuqi was a rich city filled with water and grass. A total of 130,000 residents lived here during the Hanping Emperor's reign in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25). However, due to climate change and over-exploitation from humans, the farmlands turned to desert over 2,000 years, CCTV reported.

Combating desertification was the only way out for people still living in Kubuqi, and it was a process that began 30 years ago.

Previously, in Kubuqi, people could only ride camels. A journey of 100 kilometers took six days. Many people had never even seen cars.

The first highway that went through the desert was built in 1999, and people started combating desertification in the whole desert.

Gao Maohu, a 59-year-old local resident in Kubuqi, said that it was common for planted trees to die. But the next year, people just continued to plant more trees.

After 30 years, many farmers and herdsmen in Kubuqi have now become "skilled workers" in managing desertification, the Science and Technology Daily reported.

Kubuqi spirit

"The survival rate of trees planted in the desert was only 20 percent," Gao said, "Once I saw a big wind blow away all the trees I planted. I sat in the sands and cried my heart out."

Even during the rocess of confronting desertification, the environmental situation in Kubuqi continued to deteriorate, and people often have to repeat their work.

But they never gave up.

Over three decades, tree planting technology saw continued development in Kubuqi. Now workers can plant a tree in 10 seconds, and their survival rate has surpassed 80 percent, according to the Science and Technology Daily.

A farmer shows licorices he planted in Kubuqi Desert, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Photo: VCG

In 2000, Ma Yunping and his wife in Xinmin village signed a contract with the government to manage 3,700 mu (2.5 square kilometers) of sand land. After 18 years, more than 200,000 trees were planted there, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Their indomitable work inspired the term "Kubuqi spirit," encouraging local people to move forward with the effort.

"Kubuqi Desert today is encircled by a 'defensive system' consisting of trees, bush and grass," Tu Zhifang, the general engineer of the desert management office under the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, was quoted by CCTV as saying.

In 2018, forestry coverage in Kubuqi had reached 15.7 percent from 0.8 percent in 2002, and vegetation coverage reached 53 percent. More than 500 species of wild animals now live there, said CCTV.

From dust to gold

The 102,000 residents in the desert have enjoyed the benefits of managing desertification.

Mao said he earned more than 1 million yuan ($140,000) after planting trees.

Meng Keda, whose family has lived deep in the Kubuqi Desert for generations, began a tourism business in 2006. Tourists could experience life with a herdsman family and drive in the desert. The Science and Technology Daily reported on Thursday that he had an income of 300,000 yuan last year.

Containing desertification in the Kubuqi Desert provides China experience in environmental treatment.

In the Kubuqi, 14.5 million tonnes of carbon was removed from the atmosphere, said the report, read a 2017 report by the United Nations Environment Program at, according to Xinhua.It is the first UNCCD report to specifically assess wealth created by desert restoration.

The project has created an estimated wealth of 24.4 billion yuan in terms of water conservation, and the accumulated production of oxygen is 18.3 million tonnes, valued at 6.8 billion yuan.

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has stepped up efforts to enhance grassland protection, with the average vegetation coverage of its pastures rising to 44 percent in 2018 from 30 percent in 2000, Xinhua reported Wednesday.

Grazing has now been banned on a total of 68 million hectares of pastures and the reserved areas for planting grass remain at over 3.33 million hectares, said Mu Yuan, head of the regional forestry and grassland administration.

The region has also improved its legal system for grassland protection.

 

[JSCh]

New coal gasification technology makes ammonia production greener
Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-11 15:26:13|Editor: Li Xia

BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- A new coal gasification pilot project has started to provide gas feed to ammonia production in northwest China's Gansu Province, making the production process more environment-friendly.

Ammonia is the foundation of the nitrogen fertilizer industry. Statistics show that nearly 50 percent of nitrogen fertilizer production plants in China use a fixed bed gasifier boiler to provide gas feed which may cause serious pollution.

When an air pollution alert is issued in winter, many plants are ordered to halt production, which makes the high demand for fertilizers in the spring plowing season hard to meet.

Cooperating with LS Group in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences developed coal gasification equipment with a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler. The CFB is an emerging technology for coal combustion to achieve lower emission of pollutants.

Lyu Qinggang, director of the project and a leading researcher from the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics said that one key feature of the new technology is that compared with traditional ones, it can gasify many types of coal with high ash, high melting points and high moisture, reducing production cost by 30 percent to 50 percent.

Coal gasification refers to the process in which coal is converted into product gas. It is a clean option in coal utilization. In recent years, around 800 million tons of coal is gasified annually and widely used in industries like steel, metallurgy and ammonia synthesis in China.

 

[JSCh]

Paper firm probed for polluting desert reserve
By Wang Qi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/11/11 23:23:40

The polluted area in the Tengger Desert Photo: A screenshot of thepaper.cn

Authorities in Northwest China is investigating a local paper company that had discharged waste into the Tengger Desert, one of China's largest deserts, and covered the case for 20 years due to unclear administrative jurisdiction.

The government of the Zhongwei city, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, announced on its website that, from October 21 to November 10, they had cleared 527,000 tons of black solid waste discharged by the Zhongwei Meili paper company.

China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment also sent an investigation team to Zhongwei city. Local police told the Global Times that the team arrived Saturday night.

A local police officer involved in the case surnamed Qin told the Global Times on Monday that they have not yet finished clearing the desert.

Test results show that the level of pH, cyanide and heavy metals in the polluted area has not reached a dangerous standard, but it is still unclear if underground water has been affected, thepaper.cn reported, citing an environmental official.

Luo Yameng, a Beijing-based environment protection and eco-city expert, told the Global Times on Monday that if sewage seeps into the ground, it will threaten people's health, and it is almost impossible to recover once the waste water pollutes the underground water.

The pollutants were discharged by the Meilin company between 1998 and 2004. They were produced during the paper making process, thepaper.cn reported.

The company built two waste water processing systems between 2002 and 2004 but continued to discharge waste into the desert until its pulping production line was closed in 2015.

Although the company is registered in Ningxia, the waste was discharged in the adjacent Alxa Left Banner in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which is why the pollution remained undiscovered for nearly 20 years until some volunteers revealed it to the media recently.

Zhongwei authorities are in charge of the investigation and cooperating with Alxa Left Banner authorities, Qin said.

Although the pollution had passed for many years, the company still deserves severe punishment as it committed an intentional crime, Luo said, noting that Ningxia authorities should also investigate to find out if any official helped the company cover up or neglect the pollution.

Luo called for a ban on establishing polluting companies in desertification areas and regions close to reserves, as the purification capacity of the desert is weak.

"In ecologically fragile regions, protecting the ecological environment should be given top priority. Once the ecological environment is destroyed, what is the use of economic development?" Luo added.

 

[JSCh]

Shanghai sorts out its trash
By Wang Qi and Chen Xia in Shanghai Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/30 22:28:40

Residents become garbage experts as new rules kick in

Photo: Xinhua

China is attempting to engineer a huge shift in how businesses and individuals deal with garbage, as Shanghai becomes the first city to enforce new trash sorting rules that come into full effect on July 1.

Passed in the second session of the 15th Shanghai Municipality People's Congress at the end of January, the rules say that residents must sort their garbage into four classifications - household food or kitchen waste, hazardous waste, recyclable waste and residual waste. Individuals who fail to sort their trash may be liable for a fine of up to 200 yuan ($291), while firms and organizations can be fined up to 50,000 yuan.

The new regulation applies to tourists and visitors to the city, from home and abroad.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai has installed more than 13,000 waste stations, so far covering 75 percent of the city, and has replaced more than 40,000 streetside trash cans for different types of waste, which have more obvious and easy-to-understand signs.

The municipality is taking the lead in introducing a waste sorting system that will be gradually rolled out over the whole country. Following Shanghai, another 45 cities in the Chinese mainland will introduce similar regulations, including Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. By the end of 2020, the 46 cities will invest 21.3 billion yuan to build waste sorting and recycling systems, Xinhua said.

Local residents in Shanghai told the Global Times that some communities had taken part in pilot trash-sorting projects ahead of the citywide rollout.

Geng Dechao, a retiree, has been helping with trash cleanups since 2011. He said that his community was chosen to pilot the new rules last August, which involved taking garbage to the community waste station at certain times and sorting it into the appropriate bin.

"At the beginning, some of residents were reluctant and couldn't sort [the trash] properly, but now most of our residents can do it well and those who were reluctant are doing really well after we guided them," Geng told the Global Times on Saturday.

As July approached, Shanghai residents have shown a sense of humor about the new practices as they tried to learn what to do.

"The most popular place within our residential community is not the gym but the place near the trash bins," one net user joked.

Goods related to garbage sorting are selling well on Chinese e-commerce platforms like Taobao, with thousands of new trash bins sold last month.

Some people suggested that sales were so good that people were limited in how many they could buy.

Shanghai Municipal Education Commission has decided to include garbage sorting knowledge in the city's junior high school tests, according to reports on Friday.

Waste sorting adopted in 237 cities across China
Xinhua | Updated: 2019-11-17 11:00

Residents throw plastic bottles in a trash bin with detailed sorting instructions in Beijing. WEI TONG/FOR CHINA DAILY

BEIJING - A total of 237 cities at the prefectural level or above in China have adopted waste sorting schemes as the country continues to embrace the green lifestyle, authorities said.

Waste sorting has been implemented in 53.9 percent of residential communities in the 46 cities required to carry out mandatory waste sorting by a 2017 nation-wide plan, among which 14 cities have seen more than 70 percent of neighborhoods following through on the practice, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD).

Thirty cities across China have rolled out waste sorting regulations, and 16 more are mulling legislature on the matter.

The MHURD reclassified residential waste from eight categories to 11 in a revised standard for waste sorting on Friday and launched a mini-application accessible by smartphone to promote the new classification.

China pledged to establish a basic system of laws and regulations on waste sorting by the end of 2020. Starting this year, waste sorting has been promoted in all cities at the prefectural level or above after being piloted in 46 cities.

 

[JSCh]

09:29, 23-Nov-2019
China reduces greenhouse gas emissions in rice production: study
CGTN

The greenhouse gas emissions from China's rice fields have been reduced by 70 percent over the past five decades, according to a recent Chinese study.

China's rice agriculture, a primary source of greenhouse gas emissions, has experienced great changes in the last five decades due to changes in dominant varieties and farming practices. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences comprehensively assessed the impacts of these changes on greenhouse gas emissions.

Through large-scale variety comparison, field monitoring and historical data mining, researchers found that China's average yield of rice has increased by 130 percent over the past five decades. With rice planting area shifting northwards, the adoption of high-yielding varieties and innovation in irrigation systems, the greenhouse gas emissions from China's rice fields have been reduced by 70 percent, with the reduction of methane emissions most significant.

Terrace fields. /VCG Photo

The findings illustrate that it is possible to enhance rice productivity at reduced environmental costs through screening for low emission varieties and agronomic techniques. Future innovations should ensure that rice farming progressively adapts to climate change, while continuing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

(Cover image via VCG, edited by CGTN's Zhao Ying)

 

[JSCh]