Green Space
Green Space was an environmental column by Michael Zhao that ran from November 2015 to May 2016.
Last Updated: March 3, 2022
Environment
07.19.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/athletictrack.jpg?itok=keyEusIB)
Schoolkids Suffer Toxic Air at Recycled Rubber Athletic Tracks
Chinese are known for recycling, and recycling everything. The industry is even responsible for making billionaires, like China’s “wastepaper queen” Zhang Yin.Yet when factories recycle irresponsibly, the consequences can be dire. Reports...
Green Space
05.18.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-05-18_at_10.51.04_am.png?itok=umhFAzZT)
Time Traveling Through Dramatic Urbanization in China Over Decades
Twenty-six years ago, only 26 percent of the Chinese population lived in urban areas. Since then, China’s urbanization rate has risen to almost 56 percent, meaning hundreds of millions of people have packed themselves into the country’s 662 cities...
Green Space
05.11.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/640.jpg?itok=w7X3YO7S)
The Dark Side of Country Life
The last time we peeked at Lei Hu’s photo blog, Lei was giving us a cheery look at a China that we rarely get to see: the countryside and its beauty. But there’s a dark side to country life in China, as well, and a new blog post from Lei explores...
Green Space
05.04.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/vaccines_sm.jpg?itok=o2wWrIZ6)
Vaccine Scandal Rocks China
China was rocked last month by another public health scandal, after Chinese police announced the discovery of a criminal organization selling millions of improperly stored vaccines in 24 provinces and municipalities. The affected vaccines have a...
Green Space
04.13.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/car_ownership_us-china_4cf.jpg?itok=8i5zH0yB)
Chinese Love Affair with Cars, and Tesla
Chinese love their cars. With the emergence of a large middle class, and in spite of restrictions on daily car use in some cities, many Chinese households are choosing to keep a second and sometimes even a third automobile. The world’s most populous...
Green Space
03.25.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-03-18_at_10.54.50_am.png?itok=zeg049xK)
Facebook CEO Defies China Smog; Spoof Projects Nostril-Hair Air Filters
At least a few of Facebook’s 1.5 billion users now know that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ran several miles in some of Beijing’s most notorious smog on Friday March 18 while he was in the city attending a conference. Famously sharing his...
Green Space
03.14.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/littlelee.jpg?itok=KZQ1Lvwk)
Leonardo DiCaprio Wins Oscar and Green Chinese Hearts
The Oscars are a big deal among Chinese movie fans. So it was an especially big deal last month when Leonardo DiCaprio, whose fame in China is as big as the name of the film which held the box office crown there from 1997-2009—Titanic—became what...
Green Space
02.29.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/img_9931_copy.jpg?itok=OmUA1lYx)
The Odd Shapes of PM2.5
A recent episode of “Approaching Science,” a CCTV documentary series, discussed the smog that’s been choking the mainland for the past few years. The show interviews scientists and laypeople to paint a comprehensive picture of the challenges that...
Green Space
02.16.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-02-12_at_5.58.05_pm.png?itok=0jyGumbR)
Gorging on Gadgets
Documentary filmmaker Sue Williams is finishing up her latest documentary about our beloved electronic gadgets, Death By Design. I was involved in the project and traveled with Williams to south China’s Guangdong province, to the the town of Guiyu,...
Green Space
02.04.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-02-05_at_12.23.19_pm.png?itok=kkSxpC0i)
Rescuing China’s Abused Animals
We start with a heartwarming note, which I recently heard about in a New Year’s greeting from Animals Asia, a NGO started by Jill Robinson, originally from the U.K., in Chengdu to rescue Asian bears from their torture-chamber-like cages throughout...
Green Space
01.27.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/airslides.001_0.jpg?itok=7mDn9Umr)
Kunming’s Stinky Lake, Beijing’s Saving Winds
Lake Dian in Kunming, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, suffered greatly when, in the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong called on the Chinese people to “conquer nature” and reclaim land by filling lakes with soil.Nowadays, Dianchi, as it’s...
Green Space
01.22.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-01-22_at_2.02.56_pm.png?itok=YIERiFnE)
Sea Level Rise In Pictures, Cancer Villages Near Beijing
I think a big part of the reason why citizens of the world have not rallied to deal with climate change is the lack of a certain deadline that would warrant our immediate response to the grave consequences of our warming planet. There is no...