Download or read book China s Environmental Challenges written by Judith Shapiro and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Politics of China s Environmental Protection written by Gang Chen and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2009 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the dazzling economic and social changes in China have imposed substantial impact upon the quality of environmental governance, it is time to review the problems and progress in the politics of China''s environmental protection. This book analyzes the factors in China''s governance and political process that affect and restrain its capacity to handle the mounting environmental problems. It argues that solutions to China''s ecological woes to a larger extent lie in the political and institutional changes rather than in engineering, technological and investment input. The book talks about new policies and reform measures in the green area taken by the government since 2007, arguing that some of them may be quite effective in the long run, as long as they alter institutional factors and the OC growth-firstOCO mindset that obstruct the green effort. The book also includes discussion of China''s climate change policy not only because global warming has come under the limelight of the international community in recent years, but also because it offers a unique dimension to analyze the country''s environmental diplomacy and domestic bureaucratic structure on emissions cutting and related energy issues. China is currently at the crossroads of further political and economic reform, and the intensified public attention to environmental pollution may help the Chinese Communist Party to decisively push forward the long-sluggish political reforms.

Download or read book China and the Environment written by Sam Geall and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-04-11 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sixteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China. A serious water pollution incident occurs once every two-to-three days. China's breakneck growth causes great concern about its global environmental impacts, as others look to China as a source for possible future solutions to climate change. But how are Chinese people really coming to grips with environmental problems? This book provides access to otherwise unknown stories of environmental activism and forms the first real-life account of China and its environmental tensions. 'China and the Environment' provides a unique report on the experiences of participatory politics that have emerged in response to environmental problems, rather than focusing only on macro-level ecological issues and their elite responses. Featuring previously untranslated short interviews, extracts from reports and other translated primary documents, the authors argue that going green in China isn't just about carbon targets and energy policy; China's grassroots green defenders are helping to change the country for the better.

Download or read book Toxic Politics written by Yanzhong Huang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China's deepening health crisis reveals the fragility of the party-state and undercuts China's ability to project influence internationally.

Download or read book The River Runs Black written by Elizabeth C. Economy and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China's spectacular economic growth over the past two decades has dramatically depleted the country's natural resources and produced skyrocketing rates of pollution. Environmental degradation in China has also contributed to significant public health problems, mass migration, economic loss, and social unrest. In The River Runs Black, Elizabeth C. Economy examines China's growing environmental crisis and its implications for the country's future development. Drawing on historical research, case studies, and interviews with officials, scholars, and activists in China, the author traces the economic and political roots of China's environmental challenge and the evolution of the leadership's response. She argues that China's current approach to environmental protection mirrors the one embraced for economic development: devolving authority to local officials, opening the door to private actors, and inviting participation from the international community, while retaining only weak central control. The result has been a patchwork of environmental protection in which a few wealthy regions with strong leaders and international ties improve their local environments, while most of the country continues to deteriorate, sometimes suffering irrevocable damage. Economy compares China's response with the experience of other societies and sketches out several possible futures for the country. This second edition is updated with information about events during the past five years, covering China's tumultuous transformation of its economy and its landscape as it deals with the political implications of this behavior as viewed by an international community ever more concerned about climate change and dwindling energy resources.

Download or read book China written by Robert B. Marks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This deeply informed and beautifully written book provides a comprehensive and comprehensible history of China from prehistory to the present. Focusing on the interaction of humans and their environment, Robert B. Marks traces changes in the physical and cultural world that is home to a quarter of humankind. Through both word and image, this work illuminates the chaos and paradox inherent in China's environmental narrative, demonstrating how historically sustainable practices can, in fact, be profoundly ecologically unsound. The author also reevaluates China's traditional "he.

Download or read book Environmental Issues in China Today written by Hidefumi Imura and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic development and environmental issues in China are attracting more and more attention internationally as the country’s large population and vast demands for food, energy, water, minerals, and other resources play an increasingly important role in deciding the fate of the world. There is great interest in learning more about environmental issues in China, but it is not easy to obtain accurate, relevant information because the issues are diverse and are complex phenomena resulting from the interconnections among natural resource constraints and political, social, and institutional systems. This book originally was published in Japanese with the aim of providing Japanese readers with a holistic picture of what was taking place in China with respect to its air, water, energy, and land. The author then prepared an English edition of the same material to use as a book of readings for the Global Environmental Leaders Program at Nagoya University, where he taught many students from Asia and Europe. The book covers the most important environmental issues in China—climatic change, water, air, energy, and resources—together with ongoing policy responses, based on the author’s active involvement in a number of study projects and international cooperation projects in that country. This volume will help readers to understand the causes and results of environmental problems in China and will encourage them to think more deeply about the environmental implications of the country’s rapid economic growth.

Download or read book China Goes Green written by Yifei Li and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean for the future of the planet when one of the world’s most durable authoritarian governance systems pursues “ecological civilization”? Despite its staggering pollution and colossal appetite for resources, China exemplifies a model of state-led environmentalism which concentrates decisive political, economic, and epistemic power under centralized leadership. On the face of it, China seems to embody hope for a radical new approach to environmental governance. In this thought-provoking book, Yifei Li and Judith Shapiro probe the concrete mechanisms of China’s coercive environmentalism to show how ‘going green’ helps the state to further other agendas such as citizen surveillance and geopolitical influence. Through top-down initiatives, regulations, and campaigns to mitigate pollution and environmental degradation, the Chinese authorities also promote control over the behavior of individuals and enterprises, pacification of borderlands, and expansion of Chinese power and influence along the Belt and Road and even into the global commons. Given the limited time that remains to mitigate climate change and protect millions of species from extinction, we need to consider whether a green authoritarianism can show us the way. This book explores both its promises and risks.

Download or read book Environmental ScienceBites written by Kylienne A. Clark and published by The Ohio State University. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written by undergraduate students at The Ohio State University (OSU) who were enrolled in the class Introduction to Environmental Science. The chapters describe some of Earth's major environmental challenges and discuss ways that humans are using cutting-edge science and engineering to provide sustainable solutions to these problems. Topics are as diverse as the students, who represent virtually every department, school and college at OSU. The environmental issue that is described in each chapter is particularly important to the author, who hopes that their story will serve as inspiration to protect Earth for all life.

Download or read book China s Environmental Crisis written by J. Kassiola and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-11-08 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This path-breaking collection covers the significance of China's extreme environmental challenges for both Chinese society and the world, how these challenges are impacting domestic Chinese society and its political institutions, and how these institutions are responding in their efforts to address the environmental problems.

Download or read book Local Environmental Politics in China written by Genia Kostka and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge and insight in national environmental governance in China is widespread. However, increasingly it has been acknowledged that the major problems in guiding the Chinese economy and society towards sustainability are to be found at the local level. This book illuminates the fast-changing dynamics of local environmental politics in China, a topic only marginally addressed in the literature. In the course of building up an institutional framework for environmental governance over the last decade, local actors have generated a variety of policy innovations and experiments. In large measure these are creative responses to two main challenges associated with translating national environmental policies into local realities. The first such challenge is apolicy implementation gap stemming from the absence of the state capacity necessary to the implementation of environmental measures. The second challenge refers to the need for local non-state actors to engage in environmental management; oftentimes such aparticipation gap contributes to implementation failures. In recent years, we have seen a multitude of initiatives within China at the provincial level and below designed to bridge bothgaps. Hence, the central aim of this book is to assess these experiments and innovations in local environmental politics.This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning.

Download or read book China s Air Pollution Problems written by Claudio O. Delang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China’s rapid industrialisation has led to "an air pollution catastrophe". Concerted efforts to achieve economic growth have led to veiled skies of toxic air and created health and morbidity problems as well as tremendous environmental degradation. China’s Air Pollution Problems provides an overview of air pollution in China describing how and why China has ended up in such a dire situation, what the government is doing to address the problem and the difficulties it is encountering in attempting to reduce the pollution. The analysis is based on both grey literature (newspaper articles, NGO reports, Chinese government information) and on academic studies. The grey literature gives a voice to those who suffer from the pollution, their advocates, and government officers, and allows the reader to better grasp the conditions on the ground, and the impact of air pollution among people in different areas in China. The academic literature adds a theoretical perspective and brings these different case studies into a broader context. This book will be of great interest to students of environmental pollution and contemporary Chinese studies looking for an introduction to the topic and also for researchers looking for an extensive list of sources and analysis of China's environmental problems.

Download or read book Urban China written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 30 years, China’s record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labor, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanization, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, pollution threatens people’s health, and farmland and water resources are becoming scarce. With China’s urban population projected to rise to about one billion – or close to 70 percent of the country’s population – by 2030, China’s leaders are seeking a more coordinated urbanization process. Urban China is a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area. The report proposes six main areas for reform: first, amending land management institutions to foster more efficient land use, denser cities, modernized agriculture, and more equitable wealth distribution; second, adjusting the hukou household registration system to increase labor mobility and provide urban migrant workers equal access to a common standard of public services; third, placing urban finances on a more sustainable footing while fostering financial discipline among local governments; fourth, improving urban planning to enhance connectivity and encourage scale and agglomeration economies; fifth, reducing environmental pressures through more efficient resource management; and sixth, improving governance at the local level.

Download or read book International Aid and China s Environment written by Katherine Morton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-05-17 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rapid economic growth in the world's most populous nation is leading to widespread soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and the depletion of vital natural resources. The scale and severity of environmental problems in China now threaten the economic and social foundations of its modernization. Using case studies, Morton analyzes the relationship between international and local responses to environmental problems in China, challenging the prevailing wisdom that weak compliance is the only constraint upon local environmental management in China. It advances two interrelated discussions: first, it constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the key dimensions of environmental capacity. This is broadly defined to encompass the financial, institutional, technological and social aspects of environmental management. Second, the book presents the results of an empirical inquiry into the implementation of donor-funded environmental projects in both China's poorer and relatively developed regions. By drawing upon extensive fieldwork, it seeks to explain how, and under what conditions, international donors can strengthen China's environmental capacity, especially at the local level. It will be of interest to those studying Chinese politics, environmental studies and international relations.

Download or read book China s Environmental Crisis An Enquiry into the Limits of National Development written by Vaclav Smil and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1982, Vaclav Smil turned upside down traditional perceptions of China as a green paradise in "The Bad Earth", a disturbing book. This new volume, drawn on a much broader canvas, updates and expands on the basic arguments and perceptions of "The Bad Earth". This book is not a systematic litany of what went wrong and how much - but rather an inquiry into the fundamental factors, needs, prospects, and limits of modern Chinese society, all seen through the critical environmental constraints and impacts.

Download or read book China s Soil Pollution and Degradation Problems written by Claudio O. Delang and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China’s air pollution is infamous. The haze can make it impossible to see buildings across the street, and the pollution forces schools to close and creates health and morbidity problems, in addition to tremendous environmental degradation. However, China also faces another important environmental problem, which is less well-known to the public: that of soil degradation and pollution. This book provides an overview of the problems related to soil degradation and pollution throughout China, examining how and why current policy has fallen short of expectation. It also examines the challenges faced by policy makers as they attempt to adopt sustainable practices alongside a booming and ever-expanding economy. China's Soil Pollution and Degradation Problems utilizes grey literature such as newspaper articles, NGO reports and Chinese government information alongside academic studies in order to provide an extensive review of the challenges faced by grassroots organizations as they tackle environmental policy failings throughout China. This book will be of great interest to students of environmental pollution and contemporary Chinese studies looking for an introduction to the topics of soil pollution and soil degradation, and for researchers looking for an extensive list of sources and analysis of China's environmental problems more broadly.

Download or read book China s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development written by Kristen A. Day and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China has been experiencing extraordinary economic growth for over two decades. Behind the remarkable statistics, however, it is facing a pressing issue: balancing its economic development needs with protecting its environmental resources. The environmental issue in China has a profound impact on the rest of the world as well, in such concerns as global warning and ethical and legal considerations about environmental enforcement. This book covers a broad range of topics, from specific environmental assessments in key sectors (i.e. desertification) to the policy implications of China's entry into the WTO. The contributors include scholars, government officials, business consultants, environmental science and technology experts, and others based in China and the United States. Sharing perspectives that reflect their diverse backgrounds, these experts offer valuable insights for handling the emerging opportunities and challenges of doing business in China.