An in-depth analysis of the complete range of environmental problems facing China today, including root causes and possible future scenarios.

Contemporary China faces serious environmental problems which have been widely documented in the western media, usually accompanied by doom-laden assessments and predictions for the future.

This is the first book to locate China's environmental problems in the context of her rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and transition to a market-oriented economy. Drawing on a wide range of Chinese and western sources, the 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.

Rejecting the blanket pessimism of other studies of the Chinese environment, this book offers a constructive perspective on a subject frequently dealt with in overwhelmingly negative terms.

'Murray and Cook make it clear that China is increasingly becoming dominant in determining the success or failure of regional, at the very least, and very possibly global efforts to deal with the ecological devastation caused by rapid economic growth ... [they] do an excellent job of showing that the battle to change this will be long and hard for the Chinese, as it is for us all.' - Journal of Contemporary Asia