Cover -- Green China -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of tables -- List of boxes -- Preface -- 1 China's environmental crisis: an overview -- Progress at high cost -- Consumerist contribution -- Who should pay? -- Sustainability theory -- Legacy of Han grandeur -- Achievements so far -- Need for caution -- 2 Ancient legacies -- China's sorrow: the Yellow River and the river dragons -- Han expansion: desertification and deforestation -- Ecological balance -- 3 Politics in command -- Heavy industry -- Four Pests Campaign -- On Great Leaps and communes -- Tree felling versus planting -- 4 Market forces unleashed -- Pragmatism rules -- Overmining of communal capital -- Township enterprises - rural driving force -- Contribution of urban industries -- Role of foreign investment -- 5 Urban demographic and consumerist pressures -- Growing urbanisation -- Impact of the market economy -- Enter the rural migrant -- Population pressures -- Consumerism and waste disposal worries -- 6 The Sanxia dam -- Justification: responding to threats -- Critique: mega project dangers -- Assessing the debates: alternative ways forward -- 7 Moving the waters -- Yellow River - continued source of sorrow -- Water diversion -- Not enough water -- Competition for water -- What are the alternatives? -- Technical concerns -- 8 Ecological tramplings -- Atmospheric pollution -- Better energy efficiency -- Energy conservation -- New and renewable energy -- The threat of 'carmageddon' -- Waste disposal -- 9 Pollution on the periphery -- Tibet: Land of Riches -- Tibet: the Chinese case -- Changing agricultural patterns -- Tibet: the exiles' case -- Prospects for reconciliation -- Hong Kong struggles to clean up -- Taiwan pays high price for growth -- Analysis: common themes and contrasts -- 10 Environmental policies.

Environmental protection: government monopoly -- The legal framework -- Economic solutions -- Return of blue skies -- International pilot projects -- Individual initiatives -- 11 Whither China? Alternative environmental futures -- Rosy -- Gloomy -- Doomsday -- Back to the future -- Summing up -- References -- Bibliography -- Index.

Drawing on a wide range of Chinese and western sources, this book offers in-depth analysis of the complete range of environmental problems facing China today, from the historical, political, economic and cultural root causes, through the successful and unsuccessful efforts which have been made to find solutions, to possible future scenarios and strategies.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.