Now in its 9^th year, the Festival has become not only a tradition, it also has become … huge. From 13 to 29 March some 120 authors from anywhere in the world attend the events in the three locations: Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou, all under the watchful eye of Peter who happens to be a Rotarian from the Chengdu club, see the pics when we first met at the upper deck of The Bookworm.
This year I attended the kickoff event on the evening of 13 March, for the talk “Celebrating Writers and Readers”. On the panel were: Chan Koonchung, Linda Jaivin, Sheng Keyi, Xu Xi and Lijia Zhang. A fully packed room. Followed by music and more drinks – one of our Rotaractors was at the piano…
For more on the Festival: http://bookwormfestival.com/

On Saturday 14 March I was fortunate to be at the following panel:
How does one reach beyond cliché to unearth the root causes of China’s environmental problems? Start by assembling a panel that rivals those you’d find at international summits: Ma Jun, possibly China’s preeminent environmentalist, selected by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in 2006; Dr. Husayn Anwar, with more than three decades of experience, who founded the first private environmental services firm in China in 1992; Gilbert Van Kerckhove, author of the thought-provoking book Toxic Capitalism; and Xizhou Zhou, honored by Forbes in 2011 as one of the “30 Under 30” young leaders in energy. Moderated by Jonathan Fenby, who sits on the Board of Trustees of the environment-focused Chinadialogue.net. This event was in English and Chinese (thanks to a super translation…).
See the announcement: http://bookwormfestival.com/events/2015bw14c/
The debate was interesting and lively and the room was fully packed… Then some say the environment issue is “passé”? It was clear most agree the water problems are underestimated, the air pollution is indeed serious, implementation of the environmental laws are still a major challenge and we as consumers have to change our attitudes.
It was an honor to have Ma Jun on the panel, he is featured in my book and he is probably the most famous pioneer in environmental issues here in China. I mostly commented on the well-know documentary “Under The Dome” by Chai Jing. Somehow my book already addressed all the same issues and much more. She came at the right time and adds to more awareness on the environmental problems. And she is a former CCTV host, a lady who spent a lot of money on the documentary and – did it all in Chinese. I can‘t compete with that!
Seems all my books in stock at The bookworm were sold out…

On 15 January, after leaving the Great Hall of the People I crossed Tiananmen
Square. Pollution was horrendous, one of the worst days in months: well over AQI 500. See the pictures.

On 5 November, one more seminar where I introduced the main message of my book “Toxic Capitalism”: the need to strive for Quality and Durability, so we can reduce the pressure on the environment by being better consumers, wasting less and using more efficiently resources such as raw materials and energy.
The event was organized by the European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) and presented as “Event Series on Environment: Quality & the Environment – Quality & the Environment – The dilemma for China and the West”.
It took place in the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing
The introduction to the talk:
Despite the ongoing efforts of government and industry to embrace quality systems, market competition has historically forced many Chinese manufacturers to neglect quality to save costs. However, there are signs that the tide is turning, and improving the way that quality systems are implemented has become a top priority for the current Chinese leadership.
At this event Klaus Ziegler, owner of Beijing Quality Partnerships LLC and a renowned expert in the fields of standardization, quality and certification, will introduce some of the tools that are available in the market that improve quality through training and integrated quality measures. He will explain how these tools can be utilized in product design and production processes and how they are implemented in China.
The issue of manufacturing quality has a direct impact on the environment, and as consumers we play an important role in this. Today’s consumers are locked in a cycle of buying cheap goods and quickly disposing of them when they break or are superseded by superior products, and this places an enormous strain on the environment.
Although China has borne the brunt of criticism for producing cheap and inferior products that degrade the environment, there are plenty of examples of Western manufacturers that are equally culpable. Environmental issues are a global problem that we all have a responsibility to solve.
Gilbert Van Kerckhove, author of Toxic Capitalism, will provide insights on environmental issues linked to manufacturing and consumerism, and will explain how we can all play our part in improving the current situation.

The presentations were followed by Q&A (and some book sales!).

The Third Beijing Environment and Sustainability Fair

The Third Beijing Environment and Sustainability Fair took place on 28 June 2014 from 10:00 to 17:00 at the Hilton Beijing Hotel (Liangma Qiao). The First Fair event was held on 15 June 2013 and was an overwhelming success. The Second Fair event was held on 9 November 2013 and was even better than the first one.
There is a growing demand for green products in China and new companies are regularly being formed in order to serve the ever growing need of this market. The Environment and Sustainability Fair is a perfect occasion to promote environmentally friendly values and products.
Entrance was free for everyone.
The event was organized and promoted through the FCGroup and its sponsors.

I decided to participate too, for the fun, selling my book “Toxic Capitalism” and to promote Rotaract. It was also a nice way to meet friends who came by for a chat.
See also:
http://fcgroup.org/slideshow/nggallery/june-2014/june-28-enviromental-fair
A busy day as the same evening I went to the concert of Akon… Another great and different experience.

See the earlier post here on my visit to the village: “Exploring the recycling villages of Beijing with Radio France”
Most of Beijing’s vast, but mostly ignored, army of waste collectors and recyclers live in the village of Dongxiaokou, once a small farming community in the northern suburbs of the Chinese capital, just outside the Fifth Ring Road. See here the location and a picture of China Daily.

In my book Toxic Capitalism I mention the vast recycling network in Beijing, some being officially sanctioned, some being done by rather mafia-like operations.
Radio France, after reading my book, invited me to explore together one of the major villages in the north of Beijing, well after the 4^th ring road; the radio interview was done walking around and in the taxi on our way back. We went on a sunny Saturday afternoon, with Philippe of Radio France and Luca as our valuable guide and translator.
I was at first not that at ease as the people in those “garbage villages” do not like foreigners nosing around. We decided not to run around with cameras in hand, though Philippe shot some good pics with his mobile, I myself made one shot of the truck piled up with carton.
The village we visited is just immense and we walked around in just a part of it. Pretty impressive how the Chinese have built a small industry in recovering and recycling anything that comes to mind: plastics of all kids, styrofoam, water containers, fire extinguishers, office carpets, mattresses, aluminum, iron, steel, electronics, batteries, wood, paper, name it. All a bit messy and dusty and we were lucky it was not windy and not raining.

Indeed, as I reported a couple of times in the past, local authorities, be it
government or police, enjoy it creating more pollution and are proud enough to show it in China Daily.

Caption of the picture in China Daily 12 March 2014: Police in Ningming, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, burn 1 metric ton of confiscated narcotics on Monday. The drugs, including heroin, were seized along the China-Vietnam border since the start of 2013. LI BIN / XINHUA
Fortunately some in the government are a bit more educated, a recent huge haul of counterfeit cigarettes was burned in a power plant.

When will they learn? And then Premier Li Keqiang calls for “war on pollution”.

Duh.

France, as well as other EU countries are as opaque as possible about pollution. None gives API or AQI figures. Most still work with PM10 instead of PM2.5. Beijing is more transparent. Maybe Paris needs the US embassy to start measuring. Right today in Beijing at some point the AQI was 112 with PM2.5 of 40 µg/m3 (US embassy) while Beijing says PM10: 370 µg and PM2.5: 71 µg; pollution level 228 (one of the rare moments the US embassy has better readings). The same lack of clarity is in Hong Kong where I have never seen clear AQI or API figures.

What I understand, Belgium is even worse. Not easy to know the figures there. Anyway, their “alarm levels” are a joke for us in Beijing: life would be at a constant stand-still if we applied theirs.

You can check the AQI of Paris (and Belgian cities, as well as Beijing!) here: http://aqicn.org/map/paris/
However the media never refer to those values. And the values are, compared to Beijing, a
dream. Wish we had that “pollution” every single day!

Following added to the page:
What is in the polluted air?
A study in 2013 by researchers of Tsinghua University identified more than 1,300 microbes in the atmosphere over Beijing. Although most of them may pose no direct threat to human health, the number still makes for alarming reading. The components of the pollution differ from city to city. In Xi’an most of it is related to coal consumption while Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have more complex sources, due to the growing number of vehicles. Particulate matters due to the burning of oil are more hazardous than those formed by the burning of coal. It is estimated there are some 200 to 300 chemicals in the PM2.5. The most hazardous are organic compounds containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a group of compounds thought to be carcinogenic. The most dangerous particles are the PM1 and Shanghai has more of those than Beijing, a reason for visibility on smog days to be worse in Shanghai; I thought it was due to higher humidity. [source: China Daily]

As I have been fighting a vicious cough since the middle of December, I delved a bit deeper into what is called “Beijing Cough”.
So, I created a new page, see on the right side: Beijing Cough: a myth?
Feel free to comment (directly to me). I will keep the page updated to clarify some of the misgivings around that issue that makes our life in Beijing, at times, miserable.
With the pollution, my American family has cancelled the idea of visiting us here in Beijing. The risk of getting adverse reactions for their family (including two young kids) is unfortunately too real – they have some issues with allergies and asthma.