A sandstorm in China's central Ningxia Province. 2009

As many followers of my work and my blog will know, much of my work falls within the category of environmental photography. As talks begin in Copenhagen today, on the immediate future plans of our governments to tackling climate change, it seemed appropriate to write a special blog post on photographing climate issues in China. In between the text are some of my favourite images from my work on climate change here in China.

A lone chimney stack on the outskirts of Baoding, China's first carbon-positive city. 2009

It seems that photographing climate issues have become quite a trendy topic recently. Magnum photographer Martin Parr recently described it as “as hip as it gets” in a recent blog post (via/ the excellent Duckrabbit, who do sterling work on Climate issues in Bangladesh, by the way). This is all unsurprising really. Climate change is the story of our generation and it’s a bandwagon that everyone should be jumping on. Our responsibility as photographers comes with truly understanding the issues we are photographing and being clear in the message that we are trying to convey with our pictures.

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BritCham

I have been invited to speak at the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, on January 14th 2010, speaking about my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on ‘China’s Growing Sands’. If you are in town on the date, please come along! This is a rescheduled event from last year, so hopefully this will give more people a chance to come along and see images from my work covering desertification. All the details of the event can be found below. Hope to see you there!

Event Name – Speakers’ Corner: China’s Growing Sands

Speaker(s) – Sean Gallagher, Photographer

Date and Time – Thursday 14th January 2010, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Venue – Mesa & Manifesto, 748 Julu Lu, near Fu Min Lu,T: 6289 9108

Cost – Member: RMB 120, Non-member: RMB 150

Payment Method – Pay at the event

Contact Details – events@sha.britcham.org / +86 (21) 6218 5022

BritCham Shanghai

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Air pollution hangs over the Bund in central Shanghai. 2008

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is about a subject that is never too far away from the lips of China’s residents…air pollution. The above photograph was taken in Shanghai, in early 2008, towards the end of a trip I undertook travelling the Yangtze river. Shanghai is one of China’s most spectacular cities, however this alternative photo sheds the city in a different light. A somewhat greyish light, if you will.

The debate surrounding air pollution has always been intense. In the run up to the Olympic Games last summer, China famously banned cars from the roads, closed building sites and shut down factories ahead of the games, in attempt to clear up the air and protect competing athletes. Athletes arrived, some sporting masks, however it was generally perceived that air quality was improved during the games. A new study published just last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, has revealed that spectators and participants faced an “unprecedented level” of air pollution at the Games. Particulate air pollution in the air during the Beijing games was most worrying, well above the World Health Organisation’s safe limits and at levels almost 30% more than stated by experts in China.

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