Events
CES 12 Preview: Sustainable Coffee Growing in Yunnan
Yunnan is a microcosm of the intertwined challenges facing China; climate change, strained water resources, and rising energy and food demand to meet the demands of the world’s largest country are together forming a Choke Point that cannot be ignored. In a striking example of one such growing water-energy-food choke point, Yunnan's Nuozhadu Dam on the Mekong River is located in Pu'er, the epicenter of Yunnan's coffee growing boom. Yunnan's looming threats of drought, dams, development, and deforestation are making the need for sustainable water practices, like those in Starbucks' C.A.F.E. Practices, all the more urgent.
Map: China's West-East Electricity Transfer Project
CEF is proud to announce that we are launching our first interactive infographic – a map of China’s West-East Electricity Transfer Project. The map underscores China’s energy and water imbalances and the looming choke point China faces in terms of water, food, and energy security. The map also illustrates how consumer goods made in China’s factories along its eastern coast are powered by coal and hydropower in the country’s western provinces.
Choke Point: China's Provincial Water Resources and Use (2002-2010)
Nearly 70 percent of water withdrawn in China is for agriculture, while 20 percent is withdrawn to mine, process, and consume coal. By 2020, China’s water use — driven in large part by the 30 percent expected increase in coal-fired power production — will increase dramatically.
Business Insider: Dr. Turner discusses the Cost of Smog to China
Business Insider interviewed CEF Director Jennifer Turner for the article, "Pollution is Costing China's Economy More than $100 Billion a Year."
Goldilocks Had It Right: How to Build Resilient Societies in the 21st Century
Some people, communities, and nations are able to weather and rebound from substantial shocks; they are, in a word, resilient. But what exactly does that mean? What characteristics confer resilience, and how can they be cultivated?
Roger-Mark De Souza Named Director of Population, Environmental Change, and Security
Noted population-environment expert Roger-Mark De Souza joins the Wilson Center as Director of Population, Environmental Change, and Security. De Souza will lead programs on reproductive and maternal health, environmental security, and livelihoods, including the Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program and the Global Health Initiative.
Wilson Center Announces New Program on Global Sustainability & Resilience
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars today announced the creation of a new program to study the impact of global changes—such as population growth, resource scarcity, urbanization, migration, and economic development—on people’s lives, from their environment and health to their security and economic wellbeing.
Preview: Choke Point: China Part II
The Woodrow Wilson Center's China Environment Forum and Circle of Blue have been working on the next part of the Choke Point: China series with support from Skoll Global Threats Fund. Circle of Blue’s director and senior editor just returned from the second fieldwork trip to China to examine the water-energy challenges facing second-tier cities, shale gas development, water pollution, and the expansion of agriculture in the northeast. The upcoming Choke Point: China part II reports will begin being posted later this month, but we already have some short blog posts as a preview. The first focuses on aquaculture in China.