Ma Jun, an angry environmentalist in the “world factory”
“To know the color of fashion in the West, just take a look at the color of Chinese rivers.”
Ma Jun, 40, reports with a cynical expression this joke circulating among environmentalists in his country.
It is while watching rivers and many other devastated landscapes that this journalist of the South China Morning Post decided in the mid-1990s, to write to serve the environment. Successfully. His book on water crisis, “China’s Water Crisis” published in 1999 and translated later in the United States (2004), has been compared by Time Magazine (see link below) to the “Silent Spring” of Rachel Carson. So a reference, as the work of this American biologist, published in 1962, is considered as a milestone in the history of the environmentalism.
Today, Ma Jun embodies the conscience of the Chinese society who sees with concern that the development of its country is accomplishing by abusing nature. “Of course, economic growth plight millions of persons out of poverty, but at what price?” he wonders while stating: “60% of our rivers are polluted, the proliferation of dams destroys ecosystems, air quality is deplorable. This is simply unbearable. We can not continue to both respond to the explosion of domestic demand and be the factory for the rest of world. ”
Since 2006, when he established in Beijing the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) – which published the online China Water Pollution Map -, Ma Jun has made the reporting of environmental crimes its main hobbyhorse. “We can not accept that foreign companies produce or make produced in our country in total disregard for the environment, we must set limits” he says. By gathering data on air and rivers pollution, published by local and state government, Ma Jun and his three colleagues have prepared a list of 30 000 local and foreign companies acting in violation of the law. This obviously had not attracted only friends, and Ma Jun acknowledges the pressure of companies or local governments unhappy with this bad press.
His next step: convince multinationals not to use subcontractors who pollute. And Ma Jun says it is very simple, it needs just a click. All the information are on his list: IPE website.
Article translated from the French newspaper LeMonde, Oct.22, 2008.