Articles by Geoff Dabelko

What’s up with solar silicon?

... how come solar power may be stymied by a worldwide shortfall in key ingredient poly-crystalline silicon? Despite the growing momentum for alternative power generation, the Financial Times quotes analysts citing "unsustainable" price increases of 500% over 2004 levels in some "isolated" cases.

Global production of solar batteries grew by 47 per cent by volume during 2005, and the pace is believed to have quickened in 2006. One industry estimate suggests that between 2007 and 2009, the global polysilicon supply shortage will be about 9,000 tons a year, or about a fifth of current worldwide capacity.

So much for those reassuring supply and demand lessons in ECON 101.

China loans money to developing countries with no environmental strings

Tired of all those environmental conditions on loans from Western countries and the World Bank? If you are a country in Asia with plentiful natural resources, you are in luck. China is there for you with lots of aid, especially if it is for infrastructure like bridges that will make getting those natural resources to China easier.

Today's piece in the New York Times gives a sense of China's new profile in foreign assistance, and as the piece says:

And the challenges of enforcing environmental regulations

50,000 protests last year over pollution in China. Even the inward-looking U.S. press seems to be picking up at least weekly stories on the latest Chinese environmental accident. The New York Times has a nice piece highlighting the challenges of enforcing environmental regulations while the drive for economic growth remains king.

To Russia with love, again

Seems another Chinese chemical spill is on its way to the Russian Far East (RFE). ITAR-TASS out of Moscow reported today that "a five kilometre-long benzol slick resulting from another dumping of chemicals into the Sungari river from a plant in the Chinese province of Jilin is expected to reach Russia's city of Khabarovsk on September 7-8." The story goes on to say that the benzol may evaporate before it reaches the Amur River, the same one that was poisoned last winter by a chemical spill from a factory in the same Chinese province.

Not everyone has a China environment guru to consult on such stories, but luckily I do. She is my colleague, Dr. Jennifer Turner, who directs the China Environment Forum here at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Here is an email where she puts the spill in context: