The environmental challenges that have accompanied China’s integration into the world economy have begun to take center stage both domestically and internationally. From air quality and algae blooms during the Beijing Olympics to (dog) food scares, pollution has regularly grabbed headlines over the past few years. Moreover, increasing public and official recognition of climate change has made China’s greenhouse gas emissions a global concern. Given China’s environmental challenges, it is not surprising that policymakers, academics, and environmental activists in China and from around the world is increasingly turning their attention to these problems.
The course begins by examining the biophysical landscape of China and historical ways of viewing these landscapes. This includes considering traditional Han Chinese cosmology, colonial botany and the Western scientific method, as well as Mao’s utopian environmental projects. From there we will discuss China’s environmental issues in successive weeks, including the source and implications of China’s large population, agriculture, grasslands, water, and climate change. We will also discuss China’s institutional frameworks and the relevance for the environment the emergence of a “green” civil society, and its connections to global environmentalism. In addition, exploring issues related to pollution enables us to critically reflect upon how Beijing’s air and water pollution affects our bodies as we live and study here. Finally, the course places extra emphasis on energy and climate change, as these two interconnected
issues will dominate global and international politics for the foreseeable future.
Prerequisites:
None
Additional student cost:
None
Learning outcomes:
Through taking this course, students will able to:
1) Demonstrate a solid understanding of China’s biophysical landscape, its myriad transformations over the centuries, and the various ways Chinese societies and states have understood and utilized the natural world.
2) Articulate the historical, cultural, and institutional contexts of China’s environmental challenges, and how these drivers and impacts of these challenges are mutually constituted by socio- economic processes at the local, national, and global levels.
3) Express the various ways in which environmental issues are impacting other political and social arenas such as health, political participation, protest, and international cooperation.
4) Articulate an informed and analytical account of China’s environmental policies and the various
local, national, and international actors working to reverse environmental degradation both in
China and internationally.
Method of presentation:
Lecture, Discussion, and Site Visits
Required work and form of assessment:
Readings and active participation 20% of class grade
In order to create an atmosphere of collaboration and lively discussion, students are expected to do all of the assigned readings before class. Along with academic and news articles on China’s environment, we will also read some fictional and biographical accounts of specific areas and individuals as well as policy documents by influential international and Chinese NGOs. We will also watch several short
documentaries in order to more easily visualize the landscapes and problems discussed in the readings. The course will be organized like a seminar. I will begin most classes with a brief lecture contextualizing the readings within broader literatures, traditions, and politics. The remainder of the class will be spent
discussing the readings and their implications for understanding China’s environmental situation.
Students are encouraged to integrate the readings with their own experiences in China. To that end, students will respond to a given day or week’s readings with a short, critical reflection. The reflections are intended to help you synthesize course readings with your daily experiences of China’s environment as well as our class fieldtrips.
Possible fieldtrips include trips to: Beijing’s first community-supported organic farm, the offices of environmental NGOs, a “water walk” along the waterways of Beijing with local NGOs and Beijing residents, and/or Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace). Also, every student will be required to attend either the Beijing Energy and Environment Roundtable or Green Drinks Beijing at least once during the semester.
Critical Discussant (twice – 300–800 words each) 20% (10% each)
There has been an explosion of academic, government, and journalistic analysis and coverage of environmental issues in recent years. This is a vastly different situation from even the late-1990s, when researchers working on environmental issues in China were far fewer. Although this is a welcome development, it also makes it difficult to cover everything. There are supplementary readings listed at the end of the syllabus for each topic. I will identify an article or two that challenges, supports, or expands on the topic covered that week. Students will choose one or two of the supplementary readings, writing a short, critical essay that summarizes that day’s readings with the added perspective. These critical summaries should be distributed via email to the class the DAY BEFORE the class so that everyone can read them ahead of time. The purpose of this exercise is both to stimulate discussion and to bring in a viewpoint that we would not have been able to cover otherwise because of time limitations.
Exams
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
There will be two short exams to help synthesize the materials and ensure that students have retained
the most important aspects of the course. Exams will be a mixture of short-answer “factual” questions along with questions that require short analytical responses.
content:
Week 1 Course Introduction and the Environment of Chinese History
A) Introduction to Course and Overview of Issues
B) Traditional Chinese Views of Nature
C) Biophysical Landscapes and Historical Processes
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. “Legacy of Exploitation” p. 27-41.
Elvin, Mark. “The Great Deforestation: an overview.” P. 19-39 in Retreat of the Elephants.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. “Shared Constraints: Ecological Strain” p. 211-263 (excerpts).
.
Documentary excerpts: BBC. 2007. China Wild: Heart of the Dragon.
Harris, Richard. 2008. Wildflife Conservation in China. “Non-Han Perceptions of Wildlife” p.72-75. Jiang, Rong. 2008. Wolf Totem. Chapter 2. P. 14-31.
Week 2 Visions of Nature in Comparative Historical Perspective
A) Colonizing Nature
B) Utopian Dreams and Seeing Like a Socialist Environmental State
Weller, Robert. 2006 Discovering Nature: Globalization and environmental culture in China and Taiwan.
Chapter 2 “Night of the living dead fish” and “New Natures” p. 19 – 61. (selections).
White, Lynn. 1967. “Historical roots of our ecologic crisis,” Science v.155 (March 10). (skim) Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China. Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-93)
Film excerpts: To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou
Week 3 Evolving Visions of Science, Population, and Ecology
A) Influences and evolution of China’s Socialist Science
B) Re-introduction of Western Science and Globalizing Environmental Norms
C) China’s Population “Bomb” and One-Child Policy
D) From Panda Diplomacy to Seeing like a Conservation Biologist
Yang, Qun-Rong. 1994. Cheng and the Golden Pheasant: biography of Cheng Tso-hsin. 76-148 (excerpts).
Greenhalgh, Susan. 2003. “Science, modernity, and the making of China’s one-child policy.” Population and Development Review, June v29 i2 p163-201.
Harrington, Jonathon. 1999. “State Environmentalism in the People’s Republic of China”. In Stuart Nagel
(ed.) Handbook of Global Technology Policy (Marcel Dekker, 1999).
Schaller, George. 1993. The Last Panda. “Wei-wei’s World” p. 99-121.
Week 4 Land Resources, Agriculture, and Food
A) Agricultural Land in Geographic Perspective
B) Feeding an increasingly hungry China
Encyclopedia of Modern China. 2009. “Agricultural Production,” “Natural Resources,” “Geographic
Regions”
Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? : wake-up call for a small planet New York: W.W. Norton & Co. (excerpts)
Sanders, Richard. 2006. “A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China” Development and Change 37(1): 201–226.
Ellis, Linden. 2008. China Environment Forum Health Briefs. “Environmental Health and China’s
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)”.
Field trip: Little Donkey Organic CSA Farm
Week 5 Deforestation and Desertification: Historical legacies and transnational impacts
A) Forests – Reforestation or Exporting Deforestation?
B) Grasslands and Desertification: conflicting viewpoints
Harkness, James. 1998. “Recent trends in forestry and conservation of biodiversity in China.” The China
Quarterly. No.156:911-934. (skim)
Lang, Graeme. 2002. “Forests, floods, and the environmental state in China” Organization & Environment 15(20)
Yin, Runsheng, Xu Jintao, Li Zhou, and Liu, Can. 2004 “China’s Ecological Rehabilitation: the unprecedented efforts and dramatic impacts of reforestation and slope protection in Western China. China Environment Series 7: 17-32.
Ma, Tianjie. 2008. “Interconnected Forests: Global and domestic impacts of China’s forestry conservation. China Environmental Health Project Research Brief
Wang Tao and Wu Wei. 2005. “Sandy Desertification in Northern China.” p. 234-247 in Kristen Day (ed.)
China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development.
Williams, Dee Mack. 2002. Beyond Great Walls: environment, indentity, and development on the Chinese grasslands of Inner Mongolia. “Ambiguities of Land Degradation” p. 41-61.
Yeh, Emily T. 2005. “Green governmentality and pastoralism in Western China: ‘Converting pastures to grasslands’” Nomadic Peoples, 9(1):9-29.
Week 6 Water Scarcities, Politics, and Pollution
A) Water Resources and Politics: local scarcities, (inter)national implications? B) Water politics continued – health dimensions
Ma Jun, 1999. China’s Water Crisis. (excerpts)
Nickum, J.E and Lee YS. 2006. “Same Longitude, Different Latitudes.” Environmental Politics 15: 231-
247.
CEF Environmental Health Briefs on Water-borne Illness, Aquaculture, and Songhua Benzene incident
News reports about drought and pollution
Fieldtrip: Water Walk with grassroots NGO “Nature University”
Week 7 Environmental Laws and Policies
A) Environmental Laws
B) International Influences on Environmental Policies
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. Ch. 4 “The Challenge of Greening China” pp. 91-128 and Ch. 6 “Devil at the Doorstep” 177-220.
van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law.” Development and Change
37(1) 57-74.
Lan , Simonis, Udo E. and Dudek, Daniel J.2007. “Environmental governance for China: Major recommendations of a Task Force”, Environmental Politics, 16: 4, 669 — 676.
Natural Resources Defense Council China blog
PBS and News Documentaries on Wang Canfa, Ma Jun, grassroots NGO Green Han River,
Week 8 Environmental Media and Advocacy
A) Environmental Media and Public Awareness
B) Domestic and Transnational Environmental Advocacy
“Environmental Journalism in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong” China Environment Series 27-32. Lee, Yok-shiu F. 2005. Public Environmental Consciousness in China: Early Empirical Evidence. In China’s
Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, edited by Kristen A. Day, 35-65. Armonk, NY, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Yang, Guobin. 2005. "Environmental NGOs and Institutional Dynamics in China." The China
Quarterly. 181:46-6
Martens, Susan. 2006. “Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in China’s environmental management.” Environmental Politics 15(2): 211-230.
Skim the websites of Greenpeace China and Hong Kong, WWF-China, Conservation International, and
International Crane Foundation to get a sense of their projects and positions
Fieldtrip: Friends of Nature office
Week 9 April 26-28 Pollution, Health, and Protest
A) Municipal and hazardous waste
B) Health effects and social unrest
Asia Society’s China Green short documentaries
CEF Health Briefs on “cancer villages,” e-waste, lead in water and its effects on children, as well as environmental health effects of municipal and hazardous waste.
Basel Action Network. “Exporting Harm: high-tech trashing of Asia”
Jun Jing, 2000. "Environmental Protests in rural China," in Elizabeth Perry and Mark Selden, Chinese
Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge, pp. 143-160.
Wright, Tim. 2004. "Your Rice Bowl or Your Life: the Political Economy of Coal Mine Disasters in China."
The China Quarterly, 179(1): 629-46.
Week 10 Energy – Health and Security
A) Energy Overview with emphasis on Coal and Air Pollution
B) Transnational Impacts: hydropower and oil
Rosen, Daniel H. and Trevor Houser.2007. “China Energy: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
Koehn, Peter H. 2007. Back to the Future: Bicycles, Human Health, and GHG Emissions in China. China
Environment Series 9:123-126.
Wang, Frank and Hongfei Li. 2005. “Environmental Implications of China’s Energy Demands” in Kristen
A. Day, ed., China's Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, pp. 180-200. Greenpeace report on role of SOEs in coal-fired power production.
World Resources Institute. 2010 China FAQs (selections)
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2009. “Great Himalayan Watershed”. New Left Review58
Film: US vs China in Africa: the battle for oil
Week 11 Climate Change, Cooperation and Renewable Energies
A) Climate Change impacts in China
B) International Cooperation – Energy Efficiency
C) International Competitioon – Renewable Energies
Lai, Elisa Chih-Yin. 2009. "Climate Change Impacts on China's Environment: Biophysical Impacts," China
Environmental Health Project Research Brief.
Niederberger, Anne A, Conrad U. Brunner, and Zhou Dadi. 2006. Energy Efficiency in China: Impetus for a Global Climate Policy Breakthrough? China Environment Series 8, 85-86.
Center for American Progress. 2010. Out of the Running? How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind. (China-related excerpts)
White House Fact Sheets on US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change
China Dialogue: short documentaries on climate change impacts
Week 12 Review and Final Exam
Required readings:
Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? : wake-up call for a small planet New York:
W.W. Norton & Co.
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. “Legacy of Exploitation”
Elvin, Mark. “The Great Deforestation: an overview.” P. 19-39 in Retreat of the Elephants.
Greenhalgh, Susan. 2003. “Science, modernity, and the making of China’s one-child policy.” Population and Development Review, June v29 i2 p163-201.
Harrington, Jonathon. 1999. “State Environmentalism in the People’s Republic of China”. In Stuart Nagel
(ed.) Handbook of Global Technology Policy (Marcel Dekker, 1999).
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. “Shared Constraints: Ecological Strain” p. 211-263
.
Center for American Progress. 2010. Out of the Running? How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind.
Ellis, Linden. 2008. China Environment Forum Health Briefs. “Environmental Health and China’s
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)”.
Encyclopedia of Modern China. 2009. “Agricultural Production,” “Natural Resources,” “Geographic
Regions”
“Environmental Journalism in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong” China Environment Series 27-32. Harkness, James. 1998. “Recent trends in forestry and conservation of biodiversity in China.” The China
Quarterly. No.156:911-934.
Harris, Richard. 2008. Wildflife Conservation in China. “Non-Han Perceptions of Wildlife” p.72-75. Jiang, Rong. 2008. Wolf Totem. Chapter 2.
Jun Jing, 2000. "Environmental Protests in rural China," in Elizabeth Perry and Mark Selden, Chinese
Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge, pp. 143-160.
Koehn, Peter H. 2007. Back to the Future: Bicycles, Human Health, and GHG Emissions in China. China
Environment Series 9:123-126.
Lai, Elisa Chih-Yin. 2009. "Climate Change Impacts on China's Environment: Biophysical Impacts," China
Environmental Health Project Research Brief.
Lan , Simonis, Udo E. and Dudek, Daniel J.2007. “Environmental governance for China: Major recommendations of a Task Force”, Environmental Politics, 16: 4, 669 — 676.
Lang, Graeme. 2002. “Forests, floods, and the environmental state in China” Organization & Environment
15(20)
Lee, Yok-shiu F. 2005. Public Environmental Consciousness in China: Early Empirical Evidence. In China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, edited by Kristen A. Day, 35-65. Armonk, NY, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Ma Jun, 1999. China’s Water Crisis.
Ma, Tianjie. 2008. “Interconnected Forests: Global and domestic impacts of China’s forestry conservation.
China Environmental Health Project Research Brief
Martens, Susan. 2006. “Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in China’s environmental management.” Environmental Politics 15(2): 211-230.
Nickum, J.E and Lee YS. 2006. “Same Longitude, Different Latitudes.” Environmental Politics 15: 231-247.
Niederberger, Anne A, Conrad U. Brunner, and Zhou Dadi. 2006. Energy Efficiency in China: Impetus for a Global Climate Policy Breakthrough? China Environment Series 8, 85-86.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2009. “Great Himalayan Watershed”. New Left Review 58
Rosen, Daniel H. and Trevor Houser.2007. “China Energy: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
Sanders, Richard. 2006. “A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China” Development and Change 37(1): 201–226.
Schaller, George. 1993. The Last Panda. “Wei-wei’s World” p. 99-121.
Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China. Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-93)
Wang, Frank and Hongfei Li. 2005. “Environmental Implications of China’s Energy Demands” in Kristen
A. Day, ed., China's Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, pp. 180-200.
Wang Tao and Wu Wei. 2005. “Sandy Desertification in Northern China.” p. 234-247 in Kristen Day (ed.)
China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development.
Weller, Robert. 2006 Discovering Nature: Globalization and environmental culture in China and Taiwan.
Chapter 2 “Night of the living dead fish” and “New Natures” p. 19 – 61.
Williams, Dee Mack. 2002. Beyond Great Walls: environment, indentity, and development on the Chinese grasslands of Inner Mongolia. “Ambiguities of Land Degradation” p. 41-61.
Wright, Tim. 2004. "Your Rice Bowl or Your Life: the Political Economy of Coal Mine Disasters in China."
The China Quarterly, 179(1): 629-46.
van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law.” Development and Change
37(1) 57-74.
Yang, Guobin. 2005. "Environmental NGOs and Institutional Dynamics in China." The China
Quarterly. 181:46-6
Yang, Qun-Rong. 1994. Cheng and the Golden Pheasant: biography of Cheng Tso-hsin. 76-148
Yeh, Emily T. 2005. “Green governmentality and pastoralism in Western China: ‘Converting pastures to grasslands’” Nomadic Peoples, 9(1):9-29.
Yin, Runsheng, Xu Jintao, Li Zhou, and Liu, Can. 2004 “China’s Ecological Rehabilitation: the unprecedented efforts and dramatic impacts of reforestation and slope protection in Western China. China Environment Series 7: 17-32.
Recommended readings:
WEEK 1 Course Introduction and Environmental History
Elvin, Mark. 1998, "The Environmental Legacy of Imperial China," China Quarterly 156:733-756. Elvin, Mark. 1993. "Three thousand years of unsustainable growth: China's environment from archaic
times to the present," East Asian History, Vol. 6.
Elvin, Mark and Liu Ts'ui -jung (eds).1998. Sediments of time: environment and society in Chinese history / Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University
McNeill, J.R. 1998. "China's Environmental History in World Perspective," in M. Elvin, ed., Sediments of Time: environment and society in Chinese history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (31-52) (skim).
Edmonds, Richard Louis. 1994. Patterns of China’s Lost Harmony - A Survey of the Country’s Environmental Degradation and Protection. New York: Routledge. Chapter 2 "Environmental Degradation in China's Past."
Chun, Youngsin. 2003. “Historical records of Asian Dust Events in Korea,” International Meterology
Conference.
Totman, Conrad. 2004. Pre-industrial Korea and Japan in Environmental Perspective. “Introduction” p. 1-
8 and “To 1870, Since 1870” pp. 165-172.
Hou Wenhui. 1997 “Reflections on Chinese Traditional Views of Nature.” Environmental History v.2 n.4 (October), pp.482-492.
Murphey, Rhoads. 1967, “Man and Nature in China,” Modern Asian Studies 1(4):313-333.
Weller, Robert P. and Peter K. Bol. 1998. "From Heaven-and-Earth to Nature: Chinese Concepts of the Environment and their influence on policy implementation," in Michael B. McElroy, Chris P. Nielsen, and Peter Lydon, ed.s, Energizing China. Cambridge: Harvard University Committee on Environment.
WEEK 2 Views of Nature in Comparative Historical Comparison
Tuan, Yi-fu. 1968. “Discrepancies between environmental attitude and behavior: examples from Europe and China,” Canadian Geographer v.12 n.3
Fann, Fa-ti. 2004. British Naturalists in Qing China. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. “Introduction”
and “Natural History in a Chinese Entrepot,” pp. 1-39.
Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China.
Ho, Peter. 2003. “Mao’s war against nature? The Environmental impact of the grain-first campaign in China.” The China Journal. 50:37-59.
Rohlf, Gregory 2003. "Dreams of Oil and Fertile Fields: The Rush to Qinghai in the 1950s" Modern
China 2003 29: 455-489.
Ash, Robert F. and Richard Louis Edmonds. 1998 "China's Land Resources, Environment, and Agricultural
Production," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environment
White, Tyrene. 2003.“Domination, Resistance, and Accommodation in China’s One-Child Campaign,” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society, 2nd Edition (Routledge), pp. 183-203 (esp. pp. 196-200).
WEEK 4 Land Resources and Agriculture
Ash, Robert F. and Richard Louis Edmonds. 1998 "China's Land Resources, Environment, and Agricultural
Production," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environment
White, Tyrene. 2003.“Domination, Resistance, and Accommodation in China’s One-Child Campaign,” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society, 2nd Edition (Routledge), pp. 183-203 (esp. pp. 196-200).
Paarlberg, Robert L. 1997. "Feeding China: a confident view." Food Policy. Vol 22 No. 3 pp. 269-279. Rosegrant, Mark, Scott Rozelle, and Roberta V. Gerpacio (guest editors) Food Policy. June 1997. Special
Issue: "China and the World food economy" Volume 22 Number 3 (supplemented with recent journalistic articles on food prices)
Yeh, A. G. and X.Li.1999. Economic development and agricultural land loss in the Pearl
River Delta, China. Habitat International 23(3): 373-390.
WEEK 5 Deforestation and Desertification
Jiang, Hong. 2004. “Cooperation, land use and the environment in Uxin Ju: The changing landscape of a
Mongolian-Chinese borderland in China”:Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94(1):
117-139.
Ho, Peter, 2000. "China's Rangelands under Stress: A Comparative Study of Pasture Commons in the
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region." Development and Change 31:385-412.
Ellis, et al. 1992. Chapter 1 "The grazing lands of Northern China: Ecology, society and land use," pp.
9-39; and chapter 14 "Key issues in grassland studies," pp. 193-194. Grasslands and Grassland
Sciences in Northern China. Washington DC: Committee on Scholarly Communication with the
People's Republic of China.
Banks, T. “Property rights and the environment in pastoral China: Evidence from the field.” 2001.
Development and Change, 32 (4):717-740.
Thwaites, Rik, Terry de Lacy, Li Yong Hong, and Liu Xian Hua. 1998. “Property Rights, Social Change, and Grassland Degradation in Xilingol Biosphere Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China”. Society and Natural Resources 11:319-338.
Lang, Greame. “China’s Impacts on Southeast Asian Forests” Journal of Contemporary Asia. 2006. Albers, HJ, Scott Rozelle, G. Li 1998. "China's forest under economic reform: timber supplies,
environmental protection and rural resource access." Contemporary Economic Policy.16(1)22-33.
Yin, R.S. 1998. "Forestry and the environment in China: the current situation and strategic choices."
World Development 26(12):2153-2167.
Menzies, Nicholas. 1988. “A Survey of Customary Law and Control Over Trees and Wildlands in China.” In Louise Fortmann and John W. Bruce, ed.s, Whose Trees? Proprietary Dimensions of Forestry. Boulder: Westview Press. Pp. 51-62.
WEEK 6 Water
Liu Changming. 1998. "Environmental Issues and the South-North Water Transfer Scheme," China
Quarterly 156.
Berkoff, Jeremy. 2003 "China: The South-North Water Transfer Project--is it Justified? Water Policy
Kim, Jih-Un. 2001. "Drifting on the drying water pool: China's water scarcity and its political foreboding,"
Asian Perspective 25(1).
WEEK 7 Environmental Law and Policies
More thorough accounts of environmental law (Chapter 3: p. 66-102) and bureaucracy and policymaking (Chapter 5: p. 121-149) in China can be found in Kristen Day . (ed.) China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, (ME Sharpe, 2005).
Jahiel, Abigail. 1998. “Organization of Environmental Protection in China,” China Quarterly 156, pp.757-
787.
Lieberthal, Kenneth and Michael Oksenberg. 1988. Policy Making in China: leaders, structures and processes. . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Palmer, Michael. 1998. "Environmental Regulation in the People's Republic of China: The Face of
Domestic Law." China Quarterly 156, pp.788-808.
Lieberthal, Kenneth 1997. “China’s Governing System and its Impact on Environmental Policy
Implementation.” China Environment Series, Woodrow Wilson International Center
Lo, Carlos W. H. and Gerald E. Fryxell. 2003. "Enforcement Styles among Environmental Protection
Officials in China." Journal of Public Policy, 23(01): pp. 81-115.
Rock, M. 2002. ‘Getting into the environment game: integrating environmental and economic policy- making in China and Taiwan’, American Behavioral Scientist 45(9): 1435–55.
Mol, Arthur and Neil Carter. 2006. ‘China’s Environmental Governance in Transition.’ Environmental
Politics Vol. 15, No. 2, 149 – 170.
WEEK 8 Media, Awareness, and Advocacy
Yang, Guobin and Craig Calhoun. 2008. “Media, Civil Society, and the Rise of a Green Public Sphere in
China.” p. 69-88 in China’s Embedded Activism edited by Peter Ho and Richard Louis Edmonds.
Wu, Fengshi. 2002 ‘New partners or old brothers? GONGOs in transitional environmental advocacy in
China’, China Environment Series 5: 45–58.
Ho, Peter. 2001. “Greening without conflict? Environmentalism, NGOs and civil society in China,”
Development and Change, Vol. 32, No. 5 pp. 893–921.
Stalley, Phillip and Dongning Yang. 2006. "An Emerging Environmental Movement in China?" The China
Quarterly, 186:1, pp. 333-56.
Saich, Tony. 2000. “Negotiating the state: the development of social organizations in China,” The China
Quarterly, No. 161, pp. 124–141.
Futrell, W. Chad. 2008. “Evolution of International NGOs in China: broadening environmental collaboration and shifting priorities.” China Environment Yearbook: Changes and struggles. p. 225-
257 Brill Academic Publishers.
Morton, Katherine. 2008. “Transnational Advocacy at the Grassroots: benefits and risks of international cooperation. p. 195-215 in China’s Embedded Activism edited by Peter Ho and Richard Louis Edmonds.
Turner, Jennifer and Lu Zhi. 2006. “Building a green civil society in China.” in State of the World 2006, WW Norton & Co, pp. 152-170
Li, Junhui, 2005 Position of Chinese Newspapers in the Framing of Environmental Issues MS Thesis. P.
21-39.
WEEK 9 Pollution and Protest
Vermeer, Edward. 1998. "Industrial Pollution in China," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environmet.
Maurer, Crescencia et al. 1997. "Water Pollution and Human Health in China," China Environment Series, Woodrow Wilson International Center. P. 28-38.
WEEK 10 Energy
Smil, Vaclav. 2004. China’s Past, China’s Future. New York: Routledge. Chapter 2 “Energy” p. 9-72. Chiu, Kong, Collin Green, and Katherine Sibold. 2003. Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Co-benefits of
Integrated Strategies in China. Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 40-47.
Cifuentes, Luis, Victor H. Borja-Aburto, Nelson Gouveia, George Thurston, and Debra L.Davis. 2001.
Hidden Health Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. Science 293 (17 August), 1257-1259.
Yeh, Emily T. and Joanna I. Lewis. 2004. “State power and the logic of reform in China’s electricity sector.” Pacific Affairs. Vol. 77: 437-466.
Articles on proposed damming of Nujiang River and reaction from Thailand.
Packet of newspaper summaries on Chinese energy investment in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and
Africa
WEEK 11 Climate Change
Koehn, Peter H. 2008. Underneath Kyoto: Emerging Subnational Government Initiatives and Incipient Issue-bundling Opportunities in China and the United States. Global Environmental Politics 8, No. 1 (February):53-77.
Baldinger, Pamela, and Jennifer L. Turner. 2002. Crouching Suspicions, Hidden Potential: United States
Environmental and Energy Cooperation with China. Washington, D.C.: Wilson Center.
Betsill, Michele M., and Harriet Bulkeley. 2004. Transnational Networks and Global Environmental
Governance: The Cities for Climate Protection Program. International Studies Quarterly 48, 471-493. Lew, Debra J. 2000. Alternatives to Coal and Candles: Wind Power in China. Energy Policy 28, 271-286.
Raufer, Roger, and Shujuan Wang. 2003. Navigating the Policy Path for Support of Wind Power in China.
China Environment Series 3, 37-49.
Chan, Gerald. 2004. “China's compliance in global environmental affairs.” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45(1):
69-86.
Barton, Dominic and Jonathan Woetzel. 2007. “Dragon at the crossroads: the future of china's economy.” In Kurt Campbell and Willow Darsie, eds, China's March on the 21st Century, Aspen Strategy Group, Aspen Institute, Chapter 1.
Shi, H. 2003. ‘Cleaner production in China’, in A. Mol & J. van Buuren (eds.) Greening Industrialization in
Transitional Asian countries: China and Vietnam (Lanham, MD: Lexington), pp. 63–82.
If interested in energy efficient cars:
Zhao, Jimin, and Kelly S. Gallagher. 2003. Clean Vehicle Development in China. Sinosphere
Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 20-28.
Lun, Jingguang. 2003. An Update on Efforts to Promote Cleaner Vehicles in China. Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 28-33.
Qian, Jingjing, Barbara Finamore, and Tina Clegg. 2003. Fuel Cell Vehicle Development in China.
Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 34-40.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
W. Chad Futrell is a Ph.D candidate in the field of Development Sociology at Cornell University. His two years of dissertation fieldwork on "Uneven Environmental Globalization and Networks in China and Korea” were supported by Fulbright-Hays and Korea Foundation fellowships, among others. Chad was a Korea Foundation Fellow at Korea University and has taught courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and International Relations, Chinese and Global Environmental Politics, Social Problems and Service Learning, and Qualitative Fieldwork Methods for study abroad programs in Beijing.
Chad received an MS in Development Sociology and completed coursework for a MPS in Environmental Management at Cornell University. He also studied advanced Korean at Sogang University, received a Certificate of Advanced Chinese from IUP at Tsinghua University, and spent his undergraduate years studying religion and philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill and University of Sussex. Since coming to the region in 1996, he has split his time between China and Korea, consulting and volunteering for numerous NGOs including Friends of Nature in Beijing and KFEM-Friends of the Earth Korea. Chad has published articles on civil society, NGOs, biodiversity and sandstorms in China and Korea as well as global environmentalism and American agriculture.
Globalization Of China'S Environment
The environmental challenges that have accompanied China’s integration into the world economy have begun to take center stage both domestically and internationally. From air quality and algae blooms during the Beijing Olympics to (dog) food scares, pollution has regularly grabbed headlines over the past few years. Moreover, increasing public and official recognition of climate change has made China’s greenhouse gas emissions a global concern. Given China’s environmental challenges, it is not surprising that policymakers, academics, and environmental activists in China and from around the world is increasingly turning their attention to these problems.
The course begins by examining the biophysical landscape of China and historical ways of viewing these landscapes. This includes considering traditional Han Chinese cosmology, colonial botany and the Western scientific method, as well as Mao’s utopian environmental projects. From there we will discuss China’s environmental issues in successive weeks, including the source and implications of China’s large population, agriculture, grasslands, water, and climate change. We will also discuss China’s institutional frameworks and the relevance for the environment the emergence of a “green” civil society, and its connections to global environmentalism. In addition, exploring issues related to pollution enables us to critically reflect upon how Beijing’s air and water pollution affects our bodies as we live and study here. Finally, the course places extra emphasis on energy and climate change, as these two interconnected
issues will dominate global and international politics for the foreseeable future.
None
None
Through taking this course, students will able to:
1) Demonstrate a solid understanding of China’s biophysical landscape, its myriad transformations over the centuries, and the various ways Chinese societies and states have understood and utilized the natural world.
2) Articulate the historical, cultural, and institutional contexts of China’s environmental challenges, and how these drivers and impacts of these challenges are mutually constituted by socio- economic processes at the local, national, and global levels.
3) Express the various ways in which environmental issues are impacting other political and social arenas such as health, political participation, protest, and international cooperation.
4) Articulate an informed and analytical account of China’s environmental policies and the various
local, national, and international actors working to reverse environmental degradation both in
China and internationally.
Lecture, Discussion, and Site Visits
Readings and active participation 20% of class grade
In order to create an atmosphere of collaboration and lively discussion, students are expected to do all of the assigned readings before class. Along with academic and news articles on China’s environment, we will also read some fictional and biographical accounts of specific areas and individuals as well as policy documents by influential international and Chinese NGOs. We will also watch several short
documentaries in order to more easily visualize the landscapes and problems discussed in the readings. The course will be organized like a seminar. I will begin most classes with a brief lecture contextualizing the readings within broader literatures, traditions, and politics. The remainder of the class will be spent
discussing the readings and their implications for understanding China’s environmental situation.
Environmental reflection essays (2 essays, 300–800 words each) 20% (10% each)
Students are encouraged to integrate the readings with their own experiences in China. To that end, students will respond to a given day or week’s readings with a short, critical reflection. The reflections are intended to help you synthesize course readings with your daily experiences of China’s environment as well as our class fieldtrips.
Possible fieldtrips include trips to: Beijing’s first community-supported organic farm, the offices of environmental NGOs, a “water walk” along the waterways of Beijing with local NGOs and Beijing residents, and/or Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace). Also, every student will be required to attend either the Beijing Energy and Environment Roundtable or Green Drinks Beijing at least once during the semester.
Critical Discussant (twice – 300–800 words each) 20% (10% each)
There has been an explosion of academic, government, and journalistic analysis and coverage of environmental issues in recent years. This is a vastly different situation from even the late-1990s, when researchers working on environmental issues in China were far fewer. Although this is a welcome development, it also makes it difficult to cover everything. There are supplementary readings listed at the end of the syllabus for each topic. I will identify an article or two that challenges, supports, or expands on the topic covered that week. Students will choose one or two of the supplementary readings, writing a short, critical essay that summarizes that day’s readings with the added perspective. These critical summaries should be distributed via email to the class the DAY BEFORE the class so that everyone can read them ahead of time. The purpose of this exercise is both to stimulate discussion and to bring in a viewpoint that we would not have been able to cover otherwise because of time limitations.
Exams
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
There will be two short exams to help synthesize the materials and ensure that students have retained
the most important aspects of the course. Exams will be a mixture of short-answer “factual” questions along with questions that require short analytical responses.
Week 1 Course Introduction and the Environment of Chinese History
A) Introduction to Course and Overview of Issues
B) Traditional Chinese Views of Nature
C) Biophysical Landscapes and Historical Processes
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. “Legacy of Exploitation” p. 27-41.
Elvin, Mark. “The Great Deforestation: an overview.” P. 19-39 in Retreat of the Elephants.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. “Shared Constraints: Ecological Strain” p. 211-263 (excerpts).
.
Documentary excerpts: BBC. 2007. China Wild: Heart of the Dragon.
Harris, Richard. 2008. Wildflife Conservation in China. “Non-Han Perceptions of Wildlife” p.72-75. Jiang, Rong. 2008. Wolf Totem. Chapter 2. P. 14-31.
Week 2 Visions of Nature in Comparative Historical Perspective
A) Colonizing Nature
B) Utopian Dreams and Seeing Like a Socialist Environmental State
Weller, Robert. 2006 Discovering Nature: Globalization and environmental culture in China and Taiwan.
Chapter 2 “Night of the living dead fish” and “New Natures” p. 19 – 61. (selections).
White, Lynn. 1967. “Historical roots of our ecologic crisis,” Science v.155 (March 10). (skim) Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China. Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-93)
Film excerpts: To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou
Week 3 Evolving Visions of Science, Population, and Ecology
A) Influences and evolution of China’s Socialist Science
B) Re-introduction of Western Science and Globalizing Environmental Norms
C) China’s Population “Bomb” and One-Child Policy
D) From Panda Diplomacy to Seeing like a Conservation Biologist
Yang, Qun-Rong. 1994. Cheng and the Golden Pheasant: biography of Cheng Tso-hsin. 76-148 (excerpts).
Greenhalgh, Susan. 2003. “Science, modernity, and the making of China’s one-child policy.” Population and Development Review, June v29 i2 p163-201.
Harrington, Jonathon. 1999. “State Environmentalism in the People’s Republic of China”. In Stuart Nagel
(ed.) Handbook of Global Technology Policy (Marcel Dekker, 1999).
Schaller, George. 1993. The Last Panda. “Wei-wei’s World” p. 99-121.
Week 4 Land Resources, Agriculture, and Food
A) Agricultural Land in Geographic Perspective
B) Feeding an increasingly hungry China
Encyclopedia of Modern China. 2009. “Agricultural Production,” “Natural Resources,” “Geographic
Regions”
Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? : wake-up call for a small planet New York: W.W. Norton & Co. (excerpts)
Sanders, Richard. 2006. “A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China” Development and Change 37(1): 201–226.
Ellis, Linden. 2008. China Environment Forum Health Briefs. “Environmental Health and China’s
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)”.
Field trip: Little Donkey Organic CSA Farm
Week 5 Deforestation and Desertification: Historical legacies and transnational impacts
A) Forests – Reforestation or Exporting Deforestation?
B) Grasslands and Desertification: conflicting viewpoints
Harkness, James. 1998. “Recent trends in forestry and conservation of biodiversity in China.” The China
Quarterly. No.156:911-934. (skim)
Lang, Graeme. 2002. “Forests, floods, and the environmental state in China” Organization & Environment 15(20)
Yin, Runsheng, Xu Jintao, Li Zhou, and Liu, Can. 2004 “China’s Ecological Rehabilitation: the unprecedented efforts and dramatic impacts of reforestation and slope protection in Western China. China Environment Series 7: 17-32.
Ma, Tianjie. 2008. “Interconnected Forests: Global and domestic impacts of China’s forestry conservation. China Environmental Health Project Research Brief
Wang Tao and Wu Wei. 2005. “Sandy Desertification in Northern China.” p. 234-247 in Kristen Day (ed.)
China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development.
Williams, Dee Mack. 2002. Beyond Great Walls: environment, indentity, and development on the Chinese grasslands of Inner Mongolia. “Ambiguities of Land Degradation” p. 41-61.
Yeh, Emily T. 2005. “Green governmentality and pastoralism in Western China: ‘Converting pastures to grasslands’” Nomadic Peoples, 9(1):9-29.
Week 6 Water Scarcities, Politics, and Pollution
A) Water Resources and Politics: local scarcities, (inter)national implications? B) Water politics continued – health dimensions
Ma Jun, 1999. China’s Water Crisis. (excerpts)
Nickum, J.E and Lee YS. 2006. “Same Longitude, Different Latitudes.” Environmental Politics 15: 231-
247.
CEF Environmental Health Briefs on Water-borne Illness, Aquaculture, and Songhua Benzene incident
News reports about drought and pollution
Fieldtrip: Water Walk with grassroots NGO “Nature University”
Week 7 Environmental Laws and Policies
A) Environmental Laws
B) International Influences on Environmental Policies
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. Ch. 4 “The Challenge of Greening China” pp. 91-128 and Ch. 6 “Devil at the Doorstep” 177-220.
van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law.” Development and Change
37(1) 57-74.
Lan , Simonis, Udo E. and Dudek, Daniel J.2007. “Environmental governance for China: Major recommendations of a Task Force”, Environmental Politics, 16: 4, 669 — 676.
Natural Resources Defense Council China blog
PBS and News Documentaries on Wang Canfa, Ma Jun, grassroots NGO Green Han River,
Week 8 Environmental Media and Advocacy
A) Environmental Media and Public Awareness
B) Domestic and Transnational Environmental Advocacy
“Environmental Journalism in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong” China Environment Series 27-32. Lee, Yok-shiu F. 2005. Public Environmental Consciousness in China: Early Empirical Evidence. In China’s
Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, edited by Kristen A. Day, 35-65. Armonk, NY, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Yang, Guobin. 2005. "Environmental NGOs and Institutional Dynamics in China." The China
Quarterly. 181:46-6
Martens, Susan. 2006. “Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in China’s environmental management.” Environmental Politics 15(2): 211-230.
Skim the websites of Greenpeace China and Hong Kong, WWF-China, Conservation International, and
International Crane Foundation to get a sense of their projects and positions
Fieldtrip: Friends of Nature office
Week 9 April 26-28 Pollution, Health, and Protest
A) Municipal and hazardous waste
B) Health effects and social unrest
Asia Society’s China Green short documentaries
CEF Health Briefs on “cancer villages,” e-waste, lead in water and its effects on children, as well as environmental health effects of municipal and hazardous waste.
Basel Action Network. “Exporting Harm: high-tech trashing of Asia”
Jun Jing, 2000. "Environmental Protests in rural China," in Elizabeth Perry and Mark Selden, Chinese
Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge, pp. 143-160.
Wright, Tim. 2004. "Your Rice Bowl or Your Life: the Political Economy of Coal Mine Disasters in China."
The China Quarterly, 179(1): 629-46.
Week 10 Energy – Health and Security
A) Energy Overview with emphasis on Coal and Air Pollution
B) Transnational Impacts: hydropower and oil
Rosen, Daniel H. and Trevor Houser.2007. “China Energy: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
Koehn, Peter H. 2007. Back to the Future: Bicycles, Human Health, and GHG Emissions in China. China
Environment Series 9:123-126.
Wang, Frank and Hongfei Li. 2005. “Environmental Implications of China’s Energy Demands” in Kristen
A. Day, ed., China's Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, pp. 180-200. Greenpeace report on role of SOEs in coal-fired power production.
World Resources Institute. 2010 China FAQs (selections)
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2009. “Great Himalayan Watershed”. New Left Review58
Film: US vs China in Africa: the battle for oil
Week 11 Climate Change, Cooperation and Renewable Energies
A) Climate Change impacts in China
B) International Cooperation – Energy Efficiency
C) International Competitioon – Renewable Energies
Lai, Elisa Chih-Yin. 2009. "Climate Change Impacts on China's Environment: Biophysical Impacts," China
Environmental Health Project Research Brief.
Niederberger, Anne A, Conrad U. Brunner, and Zhou Dadi. 2006. Energy Efficiency in China: Impetus for a Global Climate Policy Breakthrough? China Environment Series 8, 85-86.
Center for American Progress. 2010. Out of the Running? How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind. (China-related excerpts)
White House Fact Sheets on US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change
China Dialogue: short documentaries on climate change impacts
Week 12 Review and Final Exam
Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? : wake-up call for a small planet New York:
W.W. Norton & Co.
Economy, Elizabeth. 2004. The River Runs Black. “Legacy of Exploitation”
Elvin, Mark. “The Great Deforestation: an overview.” P. 19-39 in Retreat of the Elephants.
Greenhalgh, Susan. 2003. “Science, modernity, and the making of China’s one-child policy.” Population and Development Review, June v29 i2 p163-201.
Harrington, Jonathon. 1999. “State Environmentalism in the People’s Republic of China”. In Stuart Nagel
(ed.) Handbook of Global Technology Policy (Marcel Dekker, 1999).
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. “Shared Constraints: Ecological Strain” p. 211-263
.
Center for American Progress. 2010. Out of the Running? How Germany, Spain, and China Are Seizing the Energy Opportunity and Why the United States Risks Getting Left Behind.
Ellis, Linden. 2008. China Environment Forum Health Briefs. “Environmental Health and China’s
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)”.
Encyclopedia of Modern China. 2009. “Agricultural Production,” “Natural Resources,” “Geographic
Regions”
“Environmental Journalism in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong” China Environment Series 27-32. Harkness, James. 1998. “Recent trends in forestry and conservation of biodiversity in China.” The China
Quarterly. No.156:911-934.
Harris, Richard. 2008. Wildflife Conservation in China. “Non-Han Perceptions of Wildlife” p.72-75. Jiang, Rong. 2008. Wolf Totem. Chapter 2.
Jun Jing, 2000. "Environmental Protests in rural China," in Elizabeth Perry and Mark Selden, Chinese
Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge, pp. 143-160.
Koehn, Peter H. 2007. Back to the Future: Bicycles, Human Health, and GHG Emissions in China. China
Environment Series 9:123-126.
Lai, Elisa Chih-Yin. 2009. "Climate Change Impacts on China's Environment: Biophysical Impacts," China
Environmental Health Project Research Brief.
Lan , Simonis, Udo E. and Dudek, Daniel J.2007. “Environmental governance for China: Major recommendations of a Task Force”, Environmental Politics, 16: 4, 669 — 676.
Lang, Graeme. 2002. “Forests, floods, and the environmental state in China” Organization & Environment
15(20)
Lee, Yok-shiu F. 2005. Public Environmental Consciousness in China: Early Empirical Evidence. In China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, edited by Kristen A. Day, 35-65. Armonk, NY, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Ma Jun, 1999. China’s Water Crisis.
Ma, Tianjie. 2008. “Interconnected Forests: Global and domestic impacts of China’s forestry conservation.
China Environmental Health Project Research Brief
Martens, Susan. 2006. “Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in China’s environmental management.” Environmental Politics 15(2): 211-230.
Nickum, J.E and Lee YS. 2006. “Same Longitude, Different Latitudes.” Environmental Politics 15: 231-247.
Niederberger, Anne A, Conrad U. Brunner, and Zhou Dadi. 2006. Energy Efficiency in China: Impetus for a Global Climate Policy Breakthrough? China Environment Series 8, 85-86.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2009. “Great Himalayan Watershed”. New Left Review 58
Rosen, Daniel H. and Trevor Houser.2007. “China Energy: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
Sanders, Richard. 2006. “A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China” Development and Change 37(1): 201–226.
Schaller, George. 1993. The Last Panda. “Wei-wei’s World” p. 99-121.
Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China. Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-93)
Wang, Frank and Hongfei Li. 2005. “Environmental Implications of China’s Energy Demands” in Kristen
A. Day, ed., China's Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, pp. 180-200.
Wang Tao and Wu Wei. 2005. “Sandy Desertification in Northern China.” p. 234-247 in Kristen Day (ed.)
China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development.
Weller, Robert. 2006 Discovering Nature: Globalization and environmental culture in China and Taiwan.
Chapter 2 “Night of the living dead fish” and “New Natures” p. 19 – 61.
White, Lynn. 1967. “Historical roots of our ecologic crisis,” Science v.155 (March 10). (skim)
Williams, Dee Mack. 2002. Beyond Great Walls: environment, indentity, and development on the Chinese grasslands of Inner Mongolia. “Ambiguities of Land Degradation” p. 41-61.
Wright, Tim. 2004. "Your Rice Bowl or Your Life: the Political Economy of Coal Mine Disasters in China."
The China Quarterly, 179(1): 629-46.
van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law.” Development and Change
37(1) 57-74.
Yang, Guobin. 2005. "Environmental NGOs and Institutional Dynamics in China." The China
Quarterly. 181:46-6
Yang, Qun-Rong. 1994. Cheng and the Golden Pheasant: biography of Cheng Tso-hsin. 76-148
Yeh, Emily T. 2005. “Green governmentality and pastoralism in Western China: ‘Converting pastures to grasslands’” Nomadic Peoples, 9(1):9-29.
Yin, Runsheng, Xu Jintao, Li Zhou, and Liu, Can. 2004 “China’s Ecological Rehabilitation: the unprecedented efforts and dramatic impacts of reforestation and slope protection in Western China. China Environment Series 7: 17-32.
WEEK 1 Course Introduction and Environmental History
Elvin, Mark. 1998, "The Environmental Legacy of Imperial China," China Quarterly 156:733-756. Elvin, Mark. 1993. "Three thousand years of unsustainable growth: China's environment from archaic
times to the present," East Asian History, Vol. 6.
Elvin, Mark and Liu Ts'ui -jung (eds).1998. Sediments of time: environment and society in Chinese history / Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University
McNeill, J.R. 1998. "China's Environmental History in World Perspective," in M. Elvin, ed., Sediments of Time: environment and society in Chinese history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (31-52) (skim).
Edmonds, Richard Louis. 1994. Patterns of China’s Lost Harmony - A Survey of the Country’s Environmental Degradation and Protection. New York: Routledge. Chapter 2 "Environmental Degradation in China's Past."
Chun, Youngsin. 2003. “Historical records of Asian Dust Events in Korea,” International Meterology
Conference.
Totman, Conrad. 2004. Pre-industrial Korea and Japan in Environmental Perspective. “Introduction” p. 1-
8 and “To 1870, Since 1870” pp. 165-172.
Hou Wenhui. 1997 “Reflections on Chinese Traditional Views of Nature.” Environmental History v.2 n.4 (October), pp.482-492.
Murphey, Rhoads. 1967, “Man and Nature in China,” Modern Asian Studies 1(4):313-333.
Weller, Robert P. and Peter K. Bol. 1998. "From Heaven-and-Earth to Nature: Chinese Concepts of the Environment and their influence on policy implementation," in Michael B. McElroy, Chris P. Nielsen, and Peter Lydon, ed.s, Energizing China. Cambridge: Harvard University Committee on Environment.
WEEK 2 Views of Nature in Comparative Historical Comparison
Tuan, Yi-fu. 1968. “Discrepancies between environmental attitude and behavior: examples from Europe and China,” Canadian Geographer v.12 n.3
Fann, Fa-ti. 2004. British Naturalists in Qing China. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. “Introduction”
and “Natural History in a Chinese Entrepot,” pp. 1-39.
Shapiro, Judith. 2001. Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary
China.
Ho, Peter. 2003. “Mao’s war against nature? The Environmental impact of the grain-first campaign in China.” The China Journal. 50:37-59.
Rohlf, Gregory 2003. "Dreams of Oil and Fertile Fields: The Rush to Qinghai in the 1950s" Modern
China 2003 29: 455-489.
Ash, Robert F. and Richard Louis Edmonds. 1998 "China's Land Resources, Environment, and Agricultural
Production," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environment
White, Tyrene. 2003.“Domination, Resistance, and Accommodation in China’s One-Child Campaign,” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society, 2nd Edition (Routledge), pp. 183-203 (esp. pp. 196-200).
WEEK 4 Land Resources and Agriculture
Ash, Robert F. and Richard Louis Edmonds. 1998 "China's Land Resources, Environment, and Agricultural
Production," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environment
White, Tyrene. 2003.“Domination, Resistance, and Accommodation in China’s One-Child Campaign,” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (eds.), Chinese Society, 2nd Edition (Routledge), pp. 183-203 (esp. pp. 196-200).
Paarlberg, Robert L. 1997. "Feeding China: a confident view." Food Policy. Vol 22 No. 3 pp. 269-279. Rosegrant, Mark, Scott Rozelle, and Roberta V. Gerpacio (guest editors) Food Policy. June 1997. Special
Issue: "China and the World food economy" Volume 22 Number 3 (supplemented with recent journalistic articles on food prices)
Yeh, A. G. and X.Li.1999. Economic development and agricultural land loss in the Pearl
River Delta, China. Habitat International 23(3): 373-390.
WEEK 5 Deforestation and Desertification
Jiang, Hong. 2004. “Cooperation, land use and the environment in Uxin Ju: The changing landscape of a
Mongolian-Chinese borderland in China”:Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94(1):
117-139.
Ho, Peter, 2000. "China's Rangelands under Stress: A Comparative Study of Pasture Commons in the
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region." Development and Change 31:385-412.
Ellis, et al. 1992. Chapter 1 "The grazing lands of Northern China: Ecology, society and land use," pp.
9-39; and chapter 14 "Key issues in grassland studies," pp. 193-194. Grasslands and Grassland
Sciences in Northern China. Washington DC: Committee on Scholarly Communication with the
People's Republic of China.
Banks, T. “Property rights and the environment in pastoral China: Evidence from the field.” 2001.
Development and Change, 32 (4):717-740.
Thwaites, Rik, Terry de Lacy, Li Yong Hong, and Liu Xian Hua. 1998. “Property Rights, Social Change, and Grassland Degradation in Xilingol Biosphere Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China”. Society and Natural Resources 11:319-338.
Lang, Greame. “China’s Impacts on Southeast Asian Forests” Journal of Contemporary Asia. 2006. Albers, HJ, Scott Rozelle, G. Li 1998. "China's forest under economic reform: timber supplies,
environmental protection and rural resource access." Contemporary Economic Policy.16(1)22-33.
Yin, R.S. 1998. "Forestry and the environment in China: the current situation and strategic choices."
World Development 26(12):2153-2167.
Menzies, Nicholas. 1988. “A Survey of Customary Law and Control Over Trees and Wildlands in China.” In Louise Fortmann and John W. Bruce, ed.s, Whose Trees? Proprietary Dimensions of Forestry. Boulder: Westview Press. Pp. 51-62.
WEEK 6 Water
Liu Changming. 1998. "Environmental Issues and the South-North Water Transfer Scheme," China
Quarterly 156.
Berkoff, Jeremy. 2003 "China: The South-North Water Transfer Project--is it Justified? Water Policy
Kim, Jih-Un. 2001. "Drifting on the drying water pool: China's water scarcity and its political foreboding,"
Asian Perspective 25(1).
WEEK 7 Environmental Law and Policies
More thorough accounts of environmental law (Chapter 3: p. 66-102) and bureaucracy and policymaking (Chapter 5: p. 121-149) in China can be found in Kristen Day . (ed.) China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, (ME Sharpe, 2005).
Jahiel, Abigail. 1998. “Organization of Environmental Protection in China,” China Quarterly 156, pp.757-
787.
Lieberthal, Kenneth and Michael Oksenberg. 1988. Policy Making in China: leaders, structures and processes. . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Palmer, Michael. 1998. "Environmental Regulation in the People's Republic of China: The Face of
Domestic Law." China Quarterly 156, pp.788-808.
Lieberthal, Kenneth 1997. “China’s Governing System and its Impact on Environmental Policy
Implementation.” China Environment Series, Woodrow Wilson International Center
Lo, Carlos W. H. and Gerald E. Fryxell. 2003. "Enforcement Styles among Environmental Protection
Officials in China." Journal of Public Policy, 23(01): pp. 81-115.
Rock, M. 2002. ‘Getting into the environment game: integrating environmental and economic policy- making in China and Taiwan’, American Behavioral Scientist 45(9): 1435–55.
Mol, Arthur and Neil Carter. 2006. ‘China’s Environmental Governance in Transition.’ Environmental
Politics Vol. 15, No. 2, 149 – 170.
WEEK 8 Media, Awareness, and Advocacy
Yang, Guobin and Craig Calhoun. 2008. “Media, Civil Society, and the Rise of a Green Public Sphere in
China.” p. 69-88 in China’s Embedded Activism edited by Peter Ho and Richard Louis Edmonds.
Wu, Fengshi. 2002 ‘New partners or old brothers? GONGOs in transitional environmental advocacy in
China’, China Environment Series 5: 45–58.
Ho, Peter. 2001. “Greening without conflict? Environmentalism, NGOs and civil society in China,”
Development and Change, Vol. 32, No. 5 pp. 893–921.
Stalley, Phillip and Dongning Yang. 2006. "An Emerging Environmental Movement in China?" The China
Quarterly, 186:1, pp. 333-56.
Saich, Tony. 2000. “Negotiating the state: the development of social organizations in China,” The China
Quarterly, No. 161, pp. 124–141.
Futrell, W. Chad. 2008. “Evolution of International NGOs in China: broadening environmental collaboration and shifting priorities.” China Environment Yearbook: Changes and struggles. p. 225-
257 Brill Academic Publishers.
Morton, Katherine. 2008. “Transnational Advocacy at the Grassroots: benefits and risks of international cooperation. p. 195-215 in China’s Embedded Activism edited by Peter Ho and Richard Louis Edmonds.
Turner, Jennifer and Lu Zhi. 2006. “Building a green civil society in China.” in State of the World 2006, WW Norton & Co, pp. 152-170
Li, Junhui, 2005 Position of Chinese Newspapers in the Framing of Environmental Issues MS Thesis. P.
21-39.
WEEK 9 Pollution and Protest
Vermeer, Edward. 1998. "Industrial Pollution in China," in Edmonds, Managing the Chinese Environmet.
Maurer, Crescencia et al. 1997. "Water Pollution and Human Health in China," China Environment Series, Woodrow Wilson International Center. P. 28-38.
WEEK 10 Energy
Smil, Vaclav. 2004. China’s Past, China’s Future. New York: Routledge. Chapter 2 “Energy” p. 9-72. Chiu, Kong, Collin Green, and Katherine Sibold. 2003. Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Co-benefits of
Integrated Strategies in China. Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 40-47.
Cifuentes, Luis, Victor H. Borja-Aburto, Nelson Gouveia, George Thurston, and Debra L.Davis. 2001.
Hidden Health Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. Science 293 (17 August), 1257-1259.
Yeh, Emily T. and Joanna I. Lewis. 2004. “State power and the logic of reform in China’s electricity sector.” Pacific Affairs. Vol. 77: 437-466.
Articles on proposed damming of Nujiang River and reaction from Thailand.
Packet of newspaper summaries on Chinese energy investment in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and
Africa
WEEK 11 Climate Change
Koehn, Peter H. 2008. Underneath Kyoto: Emerging Subnational Government Initiatives and Incipient Issue-bundling Opportunities in China and the United States. Global Environmental Politics 8, No. 1 (February):53-77.
Baldinger, Pamela, and Jennifer L. Turner. 2002. Crouching Suspicions, Hidden Potential: United States
Environmental and Energy Cooperation with China. Washington, D.C.: Wilson Center.
Betsill, Michele M., and Harriet Bulkeley. 2004. Transnational Networks and Global Environmental
Governance: The Cities for Climate Protection Program. International Studies Quarterly 48, 471-493. Lew, Debra J. 2000. Alternatives to Coal and Candles: Wind Power in China. Energy Policy 28, 271-286.
Raufer, Roger, and Shujuan Wang. 2003. Navigating the Policy Path for Support of Wind Power in China.
China Environment Series 3, 37-49.
Various materials at the China Sustainable Energy Program: http://www.efchina.org/FHome.do [2]
Chan, Gerald. 2004. “China's compliance in global environmental affairs.” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45(1):
69-86.
Barton, Dominic and Jonathan Woetzel. 2007. “Dragon at the crossroads: the future of china's economy.” In Kurt Campbell and Willow Darsie, eds, China's March on the 21st Century, Aspen Strategy Group, Aspen Institute, Chapter 1.
Shi, H. 2003. ‘Cleaner production in China’, in A. Mol & J. van Buuren (eds.) Greening Industrialization in
Transitional Asian countries: China and Vietnam (Lanham, MD: Lexington), pp. 63–82.
If interested in energy efficient cars:
Zhao, Jimin, and Kelly S. Gallagher. 2003. Clean Vehicle Development in China. Sinosphere
Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 20-28.
Lun, Jingguang. 2003. An Update on Efforts to Promote Cleaner Vehicles in China. Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 28-33.
Qian, Jingjing, Barbara Finamore, and Tina Clegg. 2003. Fuel Cell Vehicle Development in China.
Sinosphere Journal 6, No. 1 (March), 34-40.
W. Chad Futrell is a Ph.D candidate in the field of Development Sociology at Cornell University. His two years of dissertation fieldwork on "Uneven Environmental Globalization and Networks in China and Korea” were supported by Fulbright-Hays and Korea Foundation fellowships, among others. Chad was a Korea Foundation Fellow at Korea University and has taught courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and International Relations, Chinese and Global Environmental Politics, Social Problems and Service Learning, and Qualitative Fieldwork Methods for study abroad programs in Beijing.
Chad received an MS in Development Sociology and completed coursework for a MPS in Environmental Management at Cornell University. He also studied advanced Korean at Sogang University, received a Certificate of Advanced Chinese from IUP at Tsinghua University, and spent his undergraduate years studying religion and philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill and University of Sussex. Since coming to the region in 1996, he has split his time between China and Korea, consulting and volunteering for numerous NGOs including Friends of Nature in Beijing and KFEM-Friends of the Earth Korea. Chad has published articles on civil society, NGOs, biodiversity and sandstorms in China and Korea as well as global environmentalism and American agriculture.
Email: wchadfutrell@gmail.com [3]