点废成绿 Greening the Beige (GtB) is an eco-minded arts collective and not-for-profit community network dedicated to nurturing awareness of environmental issues. 点废成绿 GtB promotes and celebrates earth friendly artists and organizations in Beijing.
"Why are we being forced to choose between the economy and the environment? We tend to forget that without an environment we would not have an economy, as everything we consume and I mean everything comes from our environment."
~ Franke James (contemporary artist, photographer, writer)
Beijing's landfills are getting full fast! Reduce the "trash" you throw away by purchasing products with minimal packaging. Look for reusable, recyclable, and biodegrable items and remember to carry your reusable shopping bags!
Good day, Green Beijingers!
Yesterday I went to check out STC (Smarter than Car) co-founder – Shannon Bufton – ‘s lecture on “Livability and the Bicycle: Beijing at a Crossroads”.
Shannon comes from an architecture / urban design background. He’s lived in Beijing for 1 year now, and over the past 6 months he’s been giving a lot of thought to the city and its bicycle culture.
In his lecture, he pointed out that Beijing was once the ultimate bicycle city with around 80% of its residents using the bicycle to move around. He noted that these days ridership is down to 20% as cyclists ditch the bike in favour of the car. Thousands of new cars are hitting the streets in Beijing every week and are turning Beijing into the new 'car kingdom'.
His talk illustrated this modern day phenomena of the bike and car cyclical relationship:
At the same time Beijing is getting serious about becoming a World City and improving the livability of the capital for its residents. The trend in the most livable cities in the world is shifting away from a focus on the automobile for urban mobility in city centres and towards more sustainable and people friendly forms of transportation such as the bicycle.
Beijing is now at the cross roads with its bicycle culture in decline- it can let wither and die or it can start to promote Bicycling 2.0 in the city and assist in a more rapid transition to a World class livable city.
The presentation was full of thorough research on the world’s top ranked livable cities, like Copenhagen (in a developed nation) and Bogota (in a developing nation), with insightful comparison and thoughtful analysis.
The comments and discussion afterward revolved around the juxtaposition of the bicycle vs. the car; modern china vs. yesterday’s china; money, status, culture, business, politics.
It took me back to this blog post, which doesn’t necessarily demonstrate PEDAL POWER or ways to go about reclaiming Beijing by bicycle. However, it does demonstrate the struggle here, and represents an undeniable aspect of today's Chinese zeitgeist.
Overall, it was exciting to hear Shannon’s findings, and refreshing to sit in a room full of good ideas and people. I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture, and I’m looking forward to the new STC website coming in 3 weeks.
Designed to operate as a community tool, the new site will not only support and feature urban adventures organized by STC, but also offer listings, education, and all types of resources for city cyclists.
It aims to collect all types of vital information related to biking in Beijing, and they’re currently looking for Chinese bloggers, translators, and editors. So, if you’re interested, WATCH THIS SPACE:
[a copy of Shannon’s introduction to the lecture in Chinese is copied below.]
大家好，
这周末我要在798的尤伦斯画廊做一个关于城市宜居性和自行车的讲 座。 大家也许知道我来自于建筑和城市规划的背景， 在过去的六个月里， 我给予了北京这个城市和其自行车文化很多思考。
众 所周知，北京曾经是个自行车王国， 曾有80％的居民用自行车出行。 如今随着大家放弃自行车而选择小汽车，自行车出行率降到20％。 每周有成千辆新车涌上北京的道路， 把北京变成了一个汽车王国。
与此同时， 北京正在认真思考如何成为世界城市， 怎么创建一个更宜居的城市。 目前世界上一些最宜居的城市正在朝这个方向发展： 把市中心以汽车为主导的交通形式转变为可持续性亲民的交通方式，比如自行车。
北 京正处在这个十字路口， 随着自行车文化的消失， 北京可以看着它慢慢死亡， 或者可以开始倡导自行车2.0， 帮助北京更快的转换成一个宜居的世界水平的城市。
很希望能在讲座现场见到你们， 与个位交流。
***EXTRA RANDOM MUSIC VIDEO NOTE***
The images were great, too. They helped make the comparisons more vivid. It reminded me of what an impact visuals can have on understanding. Imagery can help break down the complex into smaller parts that are much easier to digest.
They reminded me a lot of this video, exposing all the day to day routine factoids and serving them up for re-evaluation. These are prime ingredients for cooking up a paradigm shift. Which is what STC is aiming to push. (With all their might).
