China's engine of environmental collapse /

China's engine of environmental collapse /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Smith, Richard, Ph. D., author.
Imprint:London : Pluto Press, 2020.
©2020
Description:1 online resource (xxiii, 286 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Subject:
Environmental policy -- China.
Authoritarianism -- China.
Authoritarianism
Ecology
Economic history
Environmental policy
China -- Environmental conditions.
China -- Economic conditions.
China
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12651777
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781786806635
1786806630
9781786806628
1786806622
9780745341552
9780745341576
9781786806642
1786806649
0745341578
0745341551
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Richard Smith has published articles on the Chinese revolution, China's transition to capitalism, and China's environment for Against the Current, New Left Review, Monthly Review and the Ecologist. He is the author of Green Capitalism: The God that Failed (College Publications. 2016), and is a founding member of the US-based group System Change Not Climate Change.
Print version record.
Summary:"As the world hurtles towards environmental oblivion, China is leading the charge. The nation's CO2 emissions are more than twice those of the US with a GDP just two-thirds as large. China leads the world in renewable energy yet it is building new coal-fired power plants faster than renewables. The country's lakes, rivers, and farmlands are severely polluted yet China's police state can't suppress pollution, even from its own industries. This is the first book to explain these contradictions. Richard Smith explains how the country's bureaucratic rulers are driven by nationalist-industrialist tendencies that are even more powerful than the drive for profit under 'normal' capitalism. In their race to overtake the US they must prioritise hyper-growth over the environment, even if this ends in climate collapse and eco-suicide. Smith contends that nothing short of drastic shutdowns and the scaling back of polluting industries, especially in China and the US, will suffice to slash greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent climate catastrophe."--
Other form:Print version: Smith, Richard. China's engine of environmental collapse. London : Pluto Press, 2020 0745341578
Table of Contents:
  • A note on the names of rivers in this volume
  • Introduction : China as an environmental rogue state
  • 1. The "China price" : police-state capitalism and the great acceleration of global consumption
  • 2. "Blind growth" : scenes of planetary destruction from the twelfth Five-Year Plan
  • 3. The damage done : the poisoning of China's water, soil and foods
  • 4. Cooking the planet for what end?
  • 5. China's engine of environmental collapse
  • 6. Guanxi and the Game of Thrones : wealth, property, and insecurity in a lawless system
  • 7. Grabbing the emergency brake
  • 8. The next Chinese revolution
  • Appendix.

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