The blog for my documentary project, Beijing’s Olympic-inspired Greening, has moved to its permanent location at www.tessavenell.com/greening-beijing.

Project Abstract:
The rapid growth of the Chinese economy has caused a popular disregard in China of the environment, but China is taking steps in the correct direction, and the West is largely unaware of the work that China is doing to combat environmental degradation. International attention will be focused on Beijing during the month of August for the 2008 Summer Olympics; the Olympics are an established framework for positive interactions between China and the rest of the world. The city of Beijing is cleaning up for the Olympics, but we question the sustainability of this clean-up. If chosen as recipients of the Baker grant, my partner and I will make a short film about this “greening”. We will show that environmentalism in China relies largely on environmental education, and this pattern of environmentalism does not effect change in the short term. We will show the role that time plays in China’s environmental movement with a generational approach to illustrate the passage of time—by comparing what environmentalism means to the older generation to what it means to Chinese students in Environmental Education programs.