Judith Shapiro, China's Environmental Challenges

In her newest book, China's Environmental Challenges, Professor Judith Shapiro addresses China's pressing environmental challenges in a global perspective and discusses what is at stake for the future.It is a well-researched book, solidly grounded in Shapiro's deep knowledge of past and current-mainly political and legal-developments in China related to the challenges of achieving sustainable development.Shapiro writes with ease, making the book immensely readable and well suited as a core part of the curriculum in introducing undergraduate students, for example, to the environmental impact of China's rise.It works especially well as a textbook, as each chapter concludes with questions for research and discussion as well as a short list of additional readings.The book may also be useful for students of sociology, anthropology, political science or human geography and is a welcome addition to the literature about sustainable development in China and the impacts of China's rise on the natural environment.The book is timely, on a very relevant topic and may be useful for other academic fields besides those directly concerned with China.With its excellent overview, it will no doubt also be a good place to start for readers outside of academia who are interested in China, its environment and interaction with the rest of the world.Shapiro starts out by introducing the environmental challenges facing China, putting them into perspective and highlighting one of the main points of the book, that 'China's problems are interconnected with those of the rest of the planet' (p.2).The introduction gives brief overviews of the five chosen analytical concepts forming the backbone of the book: globalization, governance, national identity, civil society and environmental justice.These are well chosen analytical concepts and as the book progresses, Shapiro clearly demonstrates her thorough knowledge of China and sustainable development by also drawing on extensive personal experience from her study of China's environment.The first analytical concept, globalization, is the core theme of the second chapter.Shapiro begins with the big picture and deals with drivers and trends of environmental challenges in China: the rise of the middle class, urbanization, land use changes, population increase, climate change and environmental conflicts.These are well-known drivers of environmental challenges, not just in China.Shapiro keeps a firm grip on the complexity of the issues and each driver and challenge seems

Abstract licence: CC BY

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.