For the past few days I have been working alternately at an environmental advocacy NGO called Greenstone and the Jiangsu Province Solid Waste Management Department. Today I took a bumpy bus ride, walked through a dirty alley, and climbed up several flights of cement stairs to Greenstone’s headquarters. Greenstone has six full-time workers in the office who manage all of its operations. It calls itself a public advocacy NGO, both in the sense that it advocates for the people of China’s right to voice their opinions and in the sense that they advocate for the environment to the people. The six staff members organize everything from lawsuits against the central government to community volunteer projects cleaning trash in the city. They move around the office like a coordinated hurricane, driven by obvious passion for their jobs.
I was assigned to work with an intern there named Zhang researching environmental law in the US and in China. One of China’s biggest environmental challenges right now is perhaps not what first comes to mind. It is not a scientific problem like water pollution or carbon emissions, but rather comes down to one fact: the public is not participating enough in environmental decisions. There is very little public input into actions that impact the environment, whether those actions are policies, housing developments, or new chemical plants. The problem has to do with environmental laws that do not require public participation, companies or government officials who don’t follow laws or provide adequate information even when the public is supposed to be involved, and public apathy because people are unaware of the issues or prioritize something else, like quick economic growth. Zhang’s specialty is environmental law, so my job was to help him compare China’s laws with those of the US and figure out where and how the people could be more involved.
As we worked I was able to ask Zhang more about his thoughts on his job, the environment, and the future of China. He, like many of the other speakers this group has been able to hold dialogues with, believes that lasting change in China will have to come from a change in people’s attitudes. He encourages Greenstone to develop its community projects and engagement programs because he believes that education is the only real way to change people’s perception of the environment. His approach makes a lot of sense and echoes Hu Jie and others we have spoken to in the last few weeks. Recurring themes for this dialogue definitely include the power of ideas and special people to make huge changes, the need to look beyond a shallow number like GDP into the deeper implications of a matter, and a sense of the responsibility of every person to look beyond themselves.
Saying good bye to Zhang and the others in the office was bittersweet. I have learned a lot from the people at Greenstone over the past week. They told me to keep in touch, and I definitely plan to!
- Maddie S.
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