Also, this, Using Nature and Waste for Walls and Ceilings, about China’s sustainability efforts. A Finnish group has manufactured the shingles made of a composite blend of wood fibers and plastic for new pavilions in Shanghai for this event. The NYT says that themes of this event are recycling plastics using fiberglass to build houses! There are environmental themes considered in the building of many of the spaces for the Shanghai World Expo! ta da!

hi! This story is following a really similar pattern as the Games in Beijing, and it’s such a nice coincidence that both stories happen in CHINA.

Yesterday, Expo Offers Shanghai a Turn in the Spotlight, introduced the parallels that exist between Beijing’s “coming out party” and Shanghai’s Expo event. China spend 45 Billion–even more than in Beijing–to prepare for this international event. Says the times article, “The $61 million United States pavilion is planning to show a Hollywood-produced film about the environment. The French pavilion is displaying seven “national treasures,” including works by Manet and Van Gogh.” I wondered if we’d see more about the environment.

Then, today, Andrew sent me, “Shanghai Puts on a Green Face” also in the NYT. A theme of this event is also “greening”, but today’s article points out the apparent contradiction here, because all of these buildings will be torn down after the event. “Many of these structures have been designed with state-of-the-art energy and water saving features. Expo organizers are especially proud of the ZED Pavilion, which they hail as China’s first “zero carbon emissions” building.

“An in-depth 2009 environmental assessment of the Expo by the United Nations Environment Program was largely positive about the progress made ahead of the Expo opening, including “the success of Shanghai in decoupling growth with worsening pollution.” Despite a population of 19 million and a tripling of economic output between 2000 and 2008, “Shanghai’s rapid development in the last decade did not make air pollution worse. On the contrary, for the first time in the city’s history, economic development was made possible with the ambient concentration of air pollutants reduced or at least stabilized,” the UNEP assessment found.”

Some good news, but we’ll see what happens!