Many people believe risk drives change. Environmental degradation, depletion
of the ozone layer, and global warming all help advance global environmental
development. However, why do some countries react promptly
while some are slower to react to environmental risk? Reasons vary, but this
article focuses on how the specific way risk was formulated and introduced
in Hong Kong impeded drastic and swift environmental development. Tracing
back to the time when the notion of pollution was first formulated in
Hong Kong, this article argues that pollution was not defined as what it was.
Instead, pollution was defined and introduced to the public as a problem
of sanitation, turning pollution into a problem of categorization—a risk that
could be easily resolved. This article contributes to the study of both pollution
and risk by studying pollution as a social construct in the unique case of
Hong Kong. A warning from Hong Kong—instead of addressing and resolving
it, risk could be discreetly displaced.
Reforming the approach of the Global Environmental Facility to biodiversity conservation