Environmental Realities
Facing China

On June 4, 2009 at 7:15 p.m., join business, community and environmental leaders from around the region to hear the leading Chinese environmentalist discuss the current challenges and accomplishments of Chinese environmental protection. Learn how the world’s largest country is facing these critical challenges from one of the world’s top environmental voices.

Wang Canfa is a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law and the founding director of the Center of Legal Assistance for Pollution Victims (CLAPV). Prof. Wang is one of China’s leading environmentalists. His passion for environmental protection plays itself out in the daily effort to help ordinary Chinese citizens who have been victimized by the country’s fast ndustrialization and rapid economic growth. Since 1999, CLAPV has logged more than 10,000 calls and pursued over 100 cases. His tireless efforts and CLAPV’s numerous successes have earned Prof. Wang worldwide attention, being named one of Time Magazine’s top 50 world “Heroes of the Environment” for 2007.

China is a fascinating study. It is the world’s largest country, and is on the verge of having the world’s largest economy. Owing to its dependence on coal to fuel its rapid economic growth, it has become the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Now, with China facing its most serious economic downturn in two decades, Beijing is turning to government spending programs—such as building new bridges and investing in large-scale projects—to maintain its economic growth. All of this is taking place under the rule of a government whose goal of a “harmonious society” is frequently sought through heavy-handed means; and in a legal system that dates back a mere quarter century and whose honest application of the rule of law is frequently put in to question.

How does all of this play itself out in the realities of contemporary China?
Could this be an opportunity for China to put in place an architecture of “clean development” for the 21st century?
How can education and activism generate a new era of environmentalism in China?
What role should the courts play, and what of alternatives to the legal system?

Online Ticket Purchasing

Tickets for the Wang Canfa are $10 for general admission and $5 for students with ID. Secure, online ticket purchases are here.

Presented by The Woodbury Institute of Champlain College
and McGill University

(in collaboration with Suzuki Foundation, CORIM and
the Hong Kong Business Association)

Burlington's public events are sponsored in part by
the Brian Bronfman Family Foundation,
Bay and Paul Foundations, Vermont Energy Investment Corp.,
Johnson Family Foundation, Vermont Bar Association,
Crea and Phil Lintilhac, Seventh Generation,
the Institute for Sustainable Communities,
and Green Across the Pacific

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