Coal has long been the main fuel source powering most of China. But are the health and environmental risks spinning out of control? For the past several years, activist Sun Qingwei has worked to expose the environmental and human health risks of coal mining and consumption. He grew up in a coal miner's family, and has first-hand knowledge of the toll coal is taking on communities in China. His stories and images of the pollution and environmental devastation caused by coal, particularly in the Northern China mining regions, provide a stunning and sad portrait of the challenge of shifting away from coal in the country that mines and consumes more coal than any other. Learn about these issues as well as China’s current coal policies, and what non-governmental organization activists like Sun Qingwei are doing to try to shift China to a more sustainable energy mix.
Sun Qingwei has been the coal campaigner with Greenpeace East Asia since 2011. From 2003 to 2010, he was an associate professor and an assistant professor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences; his research interests are drylands environments, water resources, and climate change. He received a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Physical Geography.
Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Time: 5:30-7:15 (refreshments served)
Place: Sierra Club, Yosemite Room, 85 Second Street, San Francisco
RSVP requested, but not required, to: dzuber@pacificenvironment.org
Co-sponsored by San Francisco Baykeeper
