China's Engine of Environmental Collapse

Richard Smith

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781786806635
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Environmental Economics
• Index: Economics

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 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
• References
• Index