China Is Doing A Lot Better On Climate Action Than Most People Realize

A friend and on-and-off collaborator on IPOs and technical innovation initiatives just returned from a month in Beijing, where he was applying machine learning against video to speed training in sports. He’s a walker, so he covered up to 20 kilometers a day on the streets of the city. He made two observations that rung true for me, as someone who has been paying attention to China, but from afar.

The first is that the air was clean and the sky was blue. While my friend was there during the cleaner air summer rather than the winter when the air quality is typically at its worst, the improvement in air quality in Chinese cities has been extraordinary over the past decade.

The second was that the streets were incredibly quiet, much quieter than the streets of Vancouver outside the coffee shop we were in as he told me about his trip. It wasn’t that the streets were empty. Quite the opposite. They were packed with cars and people. But virtually all the vehicles were electric. No engine noise. No diesel trucks rumbling past. No motorcycles revving. Just tire noise, which at the lower speeds typical to city streets is very quiet.

Read the story from CleanTechnica by Michael Barnard - “China Is Doing A Lot Better On Climate Action Than Most People Realize."

ACF response to Deputy Prime Minister's speech at mining lobby event

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is deeply concerned that the Deputy Prime Minister’s extraordinary attack on public interest environment groups represents a disturbing disregard for civil society, democratic discourse and the public good at the top of the Turnbull Government.

On behest of the powerful mining lobby, the Turnbull Government is currently considering severely restricting the advocacy activities of public interest organisations that attract tax deductibility status on donations amid a wider set of anti-democratic proposals to limit the work of civil society groups.

ACF Chief Executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said it was ironic that Mr Joyce’s speech had been made at an event held by the Minerals Council of Australia in Parliament House, an organisation that consistently sought to lobby and influence politicians into loosening safeguards against destructive and polluting development.

Read the Australian Conservation Foundation story - “ACF response to Deputy Prime Minister's speech at mining lobby event.”