China's Environmental Challenges (China Today)
Language: English
Pages: 256
ISBN: 0745698646
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
China?s huge environmental challenges are significant for us all. They affect not only the health and well-being of China but the very future of the planet.
In the second edition of this acclaimed, trailblazing book, noted China specialist and environmentalist Judith Shapiro investigates China?s struggle to achieve sustainable development against a backdrop of acute rural poverty and soaring middle class consumption. Using five core analytical concepts to explore the complexities of this struggle - the implications of globalization, the challenges of governance; contested national identity, the evolution of civil society, and problems of environmental justice and displacement of environmental harm - Shapiro poses a number of pressing questions: Can the Chinese people equitably achieve the higher living standards enjoyed in the developed world? Are China's environmental problems so severe that they may shake the government's stability, legitimacy and control? To what extent are China?s environmental problems due to world-wide patterns of consumption? Does China's rise bode ill for the displacement of environmental harm to other parts of the world? And in a world of increasing limits on resources, how can we build a system in which people enjoy equal access to resources without taking them from successive generations, from the vulnerable, or from other species?
China and the planet are at a pivotal moment; transformation to a more sustainable development model is still possible. But - as Shapiro persuasively argues - doing so will require humility, creativity, and a rejection of business as usual. The window of opportunity will not be open much longer.
rivalry and spur conflict as powerful forces to try to gain control over valuable resources. Environmental change tends to initiate additional shifts in the form of feedback loops, as people respond to challenges with practices that often further degrade the land. As part of the effort to analyze and predict both international and domestic instability and to identify the conditions for a secure and meaningful human life, major political institutions and development agencies have put great effort
there is always a risk that in applying for model status a city will simply force polluting industries to relocate beyond the city limits, which is in effect what happened when Beijing cleaned up its air in preparation for the Olympics. Still, the effort to find a pattern that works and then replicate it in other cities may be a useful way to encourage wider adoption of best practices, as long as local conditions are also respected and the model is not imposed dogmatically. During the Mao period,
contents as if they were so much sangria. (Other stories that cause oenophiles to have heart attacks describe fine wines mixed with orange soda or Coke.) This story captures the emphasis on face and wealth display, on collective life and the forging of the bonds of guanxi [关系, or mutually indebted personal connections], and on the brash crudeness of some of China’s nouveaux riches. The Chinese love of status symbols has been a godsend for Louis Vuitton, which already makes 40 percent of its
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions. Hildebrandt, Timothy (2011) Personal communication, June 19, 2011. Human Rights Watch (2011) My Children Have Been Poisoned: A Public Health Crisis in Four Chinese Provinces. [online]. Available at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/china0611WebInside_0_0.pdf (accessed January 7, 2012). Immerzeel, Walter W.; van Beek, Ludovicus P.H.; and Bierkens, Marc F.P. (2010) Climate change will affect the Asian Water
Institutes mistrust of government authority model cities modernization monetary policy Monsanto Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer mother heroes multinational corporations Muslims Myanmar (Burma) Nanjing Children’s Hospital Nanjing Green Stone Nanjing massacre Napahai National Judges College national parks National People’s Congress (NPC) nationalism/jingoism natural capital natural gas Natural Resources Defense Council Nature Conservancy Naxi