Young Chinese have grown up with runoff-stained streams, smog-filled cities and polluted farms – the unfortunate side effect of the incredible economic boom in their country throughout their lifetimes. This year’s IRP project, “China’s Generation Green,” focuses on the emerging environmental movement in China, made up of leaders of the next generation who say they want a cleaner and sustainable future for themselves and their children.
Students in the International Reporting Program spent the past year researching the environmental issues in China. In December 2013, they partnered with journalism students at Shantou University in Guangdong, and the teams travelled throughout China, conducting interviews, collecting audio, filming and photographic efforts to address the country’s environmental crisis.
The student teams looked at the challenges of young families living in smog-choked Beijing; efforts by a food safety activists to highlight soil contamination on farms; an experiment in affordable organic farming near Chengdu; a family fighting to clean up the Huai River; and a group of photographers trying to save the rare Yunnan Snub Nosed Monkey.
The resulting written series ran as a two-page spread in the Toronto Star, and as an extensive multimedia site featuring words, sound, video, photos and graphics.
This project was produced with generous support from Mindset Social Innovation Foundation. Additional funding was provided by the Ford Foundation, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Council.
