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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.
New to this edition:
- The Second Edition has been thoroughly updated with the latest figures and trends, and it has been expanded in significant ways. It incorporates China's encouraging shift on climate change and peak emissions and its stringent new environmental laws, as well as the 2015 Under the Dome viral video phenomenon.
- The chapter on civil society has been reorganized and updated so as to highlight the many inventive and courageous strategies that Chinese environmental non-governmental organizations are using to shape public policy and behavior.
- Finally, there is an extensive new section on the global impacts of China's resources quest.
Map
Chronology
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: The Big Picture
2 Environmental Challenges: Drivers and Trends
3 State-led Environmentalism: The View from Above
4 Sustainable Development and National Identity
5 Public Participation and Civil Society: The View from Below
6 Environmental Justice and the Displacement of Environmental Harm
7 Prospects for the Future
References
Index
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.
Reviews of the first edition:
"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
