Chinas Past, Chinas Future
China has a population of 1.3 billion people, which puts strain on her natural resources. This volume, by one of the leading scholars on the earths biosphere, is the result of a lifetime of study on China, and provides the fullest account yet of the environmental challenges that China faces.
The author examines Chinas energy resources, their uses, impacts and prospects, from the 1970s oil crisis to the present day, before analyzing the key question of how China can best produce enough food to feed its enormous population. In answering this question the entire food chain the environmental setting, post-harvest losses, food processing, access to food and actual nutritional requirements is examined, as well as the most effective methods of agricultural management. The final chapters focus upon the dramatic cost to the countrys environment caused by Chinas rapid industrialization. The widespread environmental problems discussed include:
- water and air pollution
- water shortage
- soil erosion
- deforestation
- desertification
- loss of biodiversity
In conclusion, Smil argues that the decline of the Chinese ecosystem and environmental pollution has cost China about 10 per cent of her annual GDP.
This book provides the best available synthesis on the environmental consequences of Chinas economic reform program, and will prove essential reading to scholars with an interest in China and the environment.
Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment, University of Manitoba, Canada. He is widely recognized as one of the worlds leading authorities on the biosphere and Chinas environment. He is the author of many books, including The Earths Biosphere, Enriching the Earth, Feeding the World and Chinas Environment.
Asias transformations
Edited by Mark Selden
Binghamton University and Cornell University, USA
The books in this series explore the political, social, economic and cultural consequences of Asias transformations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The series emphasizes the tumultuous interplay of local, national, regional and global forces as Asia bids to become the hub of the world economy. While focusing on the contemporary, it also looks back to analyse the antecedents of Asias contested rise.
This series comprises several strands:
Asias transformations aims to address the needs of students and teachers, and the titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include
The Battle for Asia
From Decolonization to Globalization
Mark T. Berger
Ethnicity in Asia
Edited by Colin Mackerras
Chinese Society, 2nd edition
Change, Conflict and Resistance
Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden
The Resurgence of East Asia
500, 150 and 50 Year Perspectives
Edited by Giovanni Arrighi, Takeshi Hamashita and Mark Selden
The Making of Modern Korea
Adrian Buzo
Korean Society
Civil Society, Democracy and the State
Edited by Charles K. Armstrong
Remaking the Chinese State
Strategies, Society and Security
Edited by Chien-min Chao and
Bruce J. Dickson
Maos Children in the New China
Voices from the Red Guard
Generation
Yarong Jiang and David Ashley
Chinese Society
Change, Conflict and Resistance
Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden
Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy
Carl A. Trocki
Japans Comfort Women
Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation
Yuki Tanaka
Hong Kongs History
State and Society under Colonial Rule
Edited by Tak-Wing Ngo
Debating Human Rights
Critical Essays from the United States and Asia
Edited by Peter Van Ness
Asias great cities: Each volume aims to capture the heartbeat of the contemporary city from multiple perspectives emblematic of the authors own deep familiarity with the distinctive faces of the city, its history, society, culture, politics and economics, and its evolving position in national, regional and global frameworks. While most volumes emphasize urban developments since the Second World War, some pay close attention to the legacy of the longue dure in shaping the contemporary. Thematic and comparative volumes address such themes as urbanization, economic and financial linkages, architecture and space, wealth and power, gendered relationships, planning and anarchy, and ethnographies in national and regional perspective. Titles include
Hong Kong
Global City
Stephen Chiu and Tai-Lok Lui
Shanghai
Global City
Jeff Wasserstrom
Singapore
Carl Trocki
Beijing in the Modern World
David Strand and Madeline Yue Dong
Bangkok
Place, Practice and Representation
Marc Askew
Asia.com is a series which focuses on the ways in which new information and communication technologies are influencing politics, society and culture in Asia. Titles include
Asia.com
Asia Encounters the Internet
Edited by K. C. Ho, Randolph Kluver and Kenneth C. C. Yang
Japanese Cybercultures
Edited by Mark McLelland and Nanette Gottlieb
RoutledgeCurzon studies in Asias transformations is a forum for innovative new research intended for a high-level specialist readership, and the titles will be available in hardback only. Titles include
Chinese Media, Global Contexts
Edited by Chin-Chuan Lee
Imperialism in South East Asia
A Fleeting, Passing Phase
Internationalizing the Pacific
The United States, Japan and the Institute of Pacific Relations in War and Peace, 19191945
Tomoko Akami
Koreans in Japan
Critical Voices from the Margin
Edited by Sonia Ryang
The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa *
Literature and Memory
Michael Molasky
Critical Asian scholarship is a series intended to showcase the most important individual contributions to scholarship in Asian Studies. Each of the volumes presents a leading Asian scholar addressing themes that are central to his or her most significant and lasting contribution to Asian studies. The series is committed to the rich variety of research and writing on Asia, and is not restricted to any particular discipline, theoretical approach or geographical expertise.
Chinas Past, Chinas Future
Energy, Food, Environment
Vaclav Smil
China Unbound
Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past
Paul A. Cohen
Women and the Family in Chinese History
Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Southeast Asia
A Testament
George McT. Kahin
* now available in paperback
