Global Voices Online

The blog “Crossroads,” which looks at corporate social responsibility in China, draws our attention to a an article about an 11-year-old environmentalist in southwest China. The youngster took it upon himself to search for the source of river pollution and caught the attention of reporters and officials.

Last October, Chen was playing on the bank of Jialing River with his parents and found refuse in the water. This spurred him to find out where it came from. After investigating for six months in his spare time, Chen wrote a report on pollution in the river and suggested some measures to clean it up.

Rich also writes about the 11 year old environmentalist, saying

This is another case of how I think China will eventually grow towards cleaning up its environment. Individuals, and collectives, will be motivated on a personal level to investigate contaminations, conduct resaerch, develop solutions, and pressure local officials and businesses.

Meanwhile, China Environmental News Digest posts an article about recycling that may be bad for the environment; the dismantling of electronic circuit boards. The article cites a new study of electronics recycling in China from Hong Kong Baptist University. The study found that a town in southeastern China family-run recycling workshops had high levels of dangerous metals, and that people spread contaminated dust as they walked around.