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Saturday, November 12, 2011

China, BRICs & the Environment

China, BRICs & the Environment

In 2009, a series of remarkable images appeared on the Internet and in public spaces in China. From a distance, they looked like the sweeping landscapes of traditional Chinese nature paintings. On closer inspection, though, they revealed something very interesting indeed.  What appeared to be everyday images of mountains and hillocks were actually pieced together from miniature images of construction cranes, antenna towers and high-rise buildings. The inky backdrop, meanwhile, initially evocative of the traditional Taoist style, was actually showing clouds of pollution. The point of the illustrations, the handiwork of the non-government China Environmental Protection Foundation, was to raise awareness of environmental issues in China.  But the group is far from alone in recognizing such challenges. In its latest Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government explicitly identified environmental protection as a key objective of national policy.  It’s a lead that other fast-emerging economic giants – and especially the so-called BRIC nations ... Read More...

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