China’s Green Brothers

In honor of Earth Day, we’d like to point you to the Green Brothers, aka John Romankiewicz and Shane Zhao Xiangyu, enthusiastic young men in their early 20s whose shared interest in China’s various efforts at sustainable energy has resulted in a series of enjoyable video podcasts exploring local initiatives in recycling, biomass power, solar water heaters and windfarming (for some reason, the video links from their own page aren’t working; ergo, we’ve linked directly to their page on YouTube). If the sheer scale of Edward Burtynsky’s pictures of industrial waste and environmental degradation can make you feel the problems are insurmountable, the Green Brothers provide a refreshing, humanizing perspective, a sense of life on the ground, including interviews with farmers and workers about recycling and alternative energy. Romankiewicz and Zhao’s vivacity and good humor is infectious; the comments section on their intro page is already filling up with interview requests, and an invitation to screen their podcasts as part of a short film festival in Vancouver.