Smog, water pollution, deforestation and desertification—for decades, citizen activists and protestors have attempted to fight the environmental impacts of China’s development and industrialization. Now, confronted with climate change, the Communist Party of China (CCP) is well aware not only of citizen discontent, but also of the risks that climate change poses to the long term security, stability, and survivability of the regime. Rising seas will affect the great cities of Shanghai, Tianjin, and other areas along China’s coast. Glacier melt on the Tibetan Plateau will cause floods in the short term and in the long run fail to replenish the falling aquifers of the thirsty North China Plain. The prospect of high numbers of displaced Chinese citizens, internally displaced by global warming, is real. 

Spring is the best time to eat snails, when they are their plumpest, sweet and rich in protein. Snails have been slurped in China for centuries and are an inexpensive treat for a holiday celebration. In contrast to French escargot, which is served with butter and garlic, the Chinese eat snails in stir-fry, braised or boiled and eaten right from the shell. Not all snails are a treat, however, and unfortunately some are extremely damaging to crops and natural ecosystems when they are introduced into a non-native environment. 

The year of the Ox came riding in on an electric vehicle (EV) with news that both the United States and Chinese governments were accelerating efforts to expand EV markets. In 2020, China sold 41 percent of the world’s EVs and now, the United States wants to be in the race too. On January 1 of this year, China’s Ministry of Finance slashed subsidies on electric, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell automobiles by 20 percent, which is around 9 percent of the average retail price. By the end of 2022, it will halt subsidies in an EV Darwinism move as it did with solar PV panel companies to give a boost to the strongest players. Also in January, the Biden Administration announced a plan to electrify 645,000 federally procured vehicles.

China, which threw global plastic recycling markets into disarray in 2018 with its Green Sword policy banning plastic waste imports, has been ratcheting up domestic regulations to reign in single-use plastics. In January of 2020, China’s National Reform Development Commission announced a stringent policy for a nationwide plastic bag ban by 2022. China is not alone. Bans and taxes on plastic bags are spreading around the globe and they might soon come to your neighborhood, if they haven’t already. 

Indonesia. Crystal blue waters, palm trees swaying in the wind, endless sandy beaches, lush tropical jungles, towering mountains, lakes, rivers, and more; all are images that may come to mind when you think of Indonesia. But like other Asian countries, Indonesia’s booming development and increased consumption have generated an immense amount of waste, particularly single-use plastics that are leaking into the ocean. 

In May 2009, I was traveling with researchers from the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences to learn about rural water pollution. One of them realized it was Mother’s Day and decided to treat the 3 mothers in the group to a fishing trip. We soon pulled into a farm with rows of large concrete ponds filled with fish. This was my first introduction to the world’s largest aquaculture industry, where fish are farmed in ponds, reservoirs, and even rice paddies. China produces 50 million tons of seafood annually, far eclipsing the 0.5 million tons farmed in the United States.

Back in 2005, as a part of the Coca-Cola Company Environmental Team, April Crow was a pioneer working on the concept of sustainable packaging. In the mid-2000s, despite stories on the great pacific garbage patch, ocean plastic waste was not high on policy or corporate agendas. April believed this was due to a lack of scientific data on the scale and threat of plastic waste. To fill this gap, April’s team partnered with Ocean Conservancy to convene leading scientists to help fill these knowledge gaps. Their research found the majority of marine plastic pollution stemmed from five Asian countries that lacked waste management infrastructure, which if fully in place, could reduce leakage by 45 percent. This insight raised a challenging question—how can companies and aid agencies bring funding to these markets to facilitate better infrastructure and prevent plastic leakage?

“There is one thing I think about a lot: how do you get people active on plastic waste? How do you structure having impact?”

Judith Enck discovered her interest in environmental activism when she interned in college for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and was asked to lobby for the Returnable Container Act (commonly referred to as the Bottle Bill), which had stalled for 10 years. The difficulty she faced in lobbying for this relatively simple bill motivated her to return for a second internship. After graduation, she abandoned plans for social work or law school to return to environmental advocacy and quickly became the executive director of Environmental Advocates NY. The bill eventually became a New York State law in 1982 and has since prevented the unnecessary export or landfilling of billions of plastic bottles. Judith learned important lessons from that victory and has been making her mark on America’s waste policy ever since.