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Overview
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 this 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 equity - Shapiro poses a number of pressing questions: Do the Chinese people have the right to 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 patterns of Western consumption? And in a world of increasing limits on resources and pollution "sinks," is it even possible to build an equitable system in which people enjoy equal access to resources without taking them from successive generations, from the poor, or from other species?
China and the planet are at a pivotal moment; the path towards a more sustainable development model is still open. But - as Shapiro persuasively argues - making this choice will require humility, creativity, and a rejection of business as usual. The window of opportunity will not be open much longer.
Chapter 1 - 'The Big Picture' - is available online.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780745660912 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 06/13/2012 |
| Series: | China Today Series , #3 |
| Edition description: | Older Edition |
| Pages: | 200 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.80(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Judith Shapiro is a professor in the School of International Service at American University, Washington DC. She is the author of Mao's War against Nature and the co-author of Son of the Revolution and other books on China. She can be reached through her website, www.judithshapiro.com.
Table of Contents
Map
Chronology
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter One: Introduction: The Big Picture
Chapter Two: Environmental Challenges: Drivers and Trends
Chapter Three: State-led Environmentalism: The View from Above
Chapter Four: Sustainable Development and National Identity
Chapter Five: Public Participation and Civil Society: The View from Below
Chapter Six: Environmental Justice and the Displacement of Environmental Harm
Chapter Seven: Prospects for the Future
References
What People are Saying About This
"A concise and illuminating book."
Financial Times
"A well researched and balanced book about one of the great issues of our time."
South China Morning Post
"An exemplary introduction not only to China's ecological crisis, but also to the analytic tools that might help us to understand and approach it constructively."
China Dialogue
"A very welcome contribution, a valuable source for covering the environment in Chinese politics courses, and an up-to-date text for the political sections of anthropology and geography courses that cover Chinese environmental problems."
China Quarterly
"Very well written and carefully researched - an essential text for anyone wishing to understand the complexities of not only China’s environmental future, but also the realities to the limits to China’s economic growth."
Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia
"Shapiro writes with great clarity and an underlying sense of moral urgency. Each main chapter concludes with thoughtful discussion questions to prompt further deliberation. Accessible and concise, China's Environmental Challenges is suitable for undergraduate courses in a wide range of disciplines."
Studies on Asia
"Far and away the best source on what is really going on in China. Using a masterful appreciation of contemporary and traditional Chinese values she seeks to understand the relationship between China's generation-long thrust to build a modern industrial society with the price it has paid in present and future environmental challenge."
WAMC Northeast Public Radio
"This book is an ideal primer for one of the world's most complex and important challenges. From governance and globalization to national identity and justice, Shapiro provides a nuanced and comprehensive introduction to the full range of China's environmental problems and frames discussions on how they might be solved."
Jonathan Watts, author of When a Billion Chinese Jump
"China’s environmental future will shape the lives of everyone on the planet in the years and decades to come. Judith Shapiro provides a wonderfully clear, accessible, and insightful account of the environmental toll of China’s explosive economic growth. This unique and revealing account will be essential reading for anyone concerned about the environmental future of China, the planet, and its people"
Ken Conca, author of Governing Water and editor of Green Planet Blues: Four Decades of Global Environmental Politics
"The rise of China’s economy is transforming the world. Judith Shapiro’s spirited analysis is a riveting journey through the environmental politics of China – with lessons and insights that anyone who is striving for a more just and sustainable future urgently needs to know."
Peter Dauvergne, University of British Columbia, author of Timber
"From her years spent in China Shapiro brings a sharp analysis of China's environmental problems, from the Mao years to the present. As a new green movement emerges, she clearly identifies the immense political and economic challenges it will face. She is cautiously hopeful that China could overcome its history, address its environmental problems, and become a leader in green technology. This is essential reading for students, activists and professionals who are trying to understand what China's future holds, for its citizens and for us."
Gary Marcuse, director of Waking the Green Tiger
"Shapiro is one of the world's leading China scholars. In this crisply written, balanced, and insightful book, Shapiro explains the political, cultural and economic factors that shape China's ability to respond to environmental dangers. Shapiro provides a superb overview of China's environmental protection efforts that will inform policy-makers, students and ordinary citizens for years to come. China's Environmental Challenges is the foundational text many of us have been waiting for."
Paul Wapner, author of Living Through the End of Nature and Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics