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Correct link for VisionWall/Envision -- in China environment article
By
The June issue of the Atlantic has started to reach subscribers. Not me in China yet, and not a number of friends who've written to ask about it. But enough to remind me to add one point of clarification.
In this issue I have a long narrative article called "China's Silver Lining," arguing a case I had not at all expected to argue before trekking across the country to see a variety of anti-pollution efforts. The argument, in brief, is that the environmental situation here is less uniformly disastrous than most outside discussion assumes -- and that recognizing where, why and how much it is improving (and where it isn't) is crucial for taking the next big steps forward. Those next big steps, in turn, are necessary so that Chinese industrialization doesn't kill everyone in China and half the people in the rest of the world.
You can judge for yourself. (Subscribers will get it in the next few days; online edition goes up in a couple of weeks.) Here is the additional info I am thinking of:
In the article I tell the story of a Canadian-based company whose Chinese operation is called Envision, and which is making a radically more energy-efficient form of window glass. Unglamorous innovations of this sort are significant because Chinese buildings standards have been so grossly inefficient that it takes dramatically more energy to heat or cool a new building in Shanghai or Beijing than its counterpart in a similar weather zone in Europe or North America. Thus merely installing different glass could, over time, spare China the need to burn millions of tons of coal.
The window company I'm mentioning is a small part of a larger drama, and I am not trying to advertise it in particular. Several people have asked how to find out more about it, which might not be obvious from the story. Outside China, it is known by the name VIsionWall, and its site is here. FWIW.
In this issue I have a long narrative article called "China's Silver Lining," arguing a case I had not at all expected to argue before trekking across the country to see a variety of anti-pollution efforts. The argument, in brief, is that the environmental situation here is less uniformly disastrous than most outside discussion assumes -- and that recognizing where, why and how much it is improving (and where it isn't) is crucial for taking the next big steps forward. Those next big steps, in turn, are necessary so that Chinese industrialization doesn't kill everyone in China and half the people in the rest of the world.
You can judge for yourself. (Subscribers will get it in the next few days; online edition goes up in a couple of weeks.) Here is the additional info I am thinking of:
In the article I tell the story of a Canadian-based company whose Chinese operation is called Envision, and which is making a radically more energy-efficient form of window glass. Unglamorous innovations of this sort are significant because Chinese buildings standards have been so grossly inefficient that it takes dramatically more energy to heat or cool a new building in Shanghai or Beijing than its counterpart in a similar weather zone in Europe or North America. Thus merely installing different glass could, over time, spare China the need to burn millions of tons of coal.
The window company I'm mentioning is a small part of a larger drama, and I am not trying to advertise it in particular. Several people have asked how to find out more about it, which might not be obvious from the story. Outside China, it is known by the name VIsionWall, and its site is here. FWIW.
