geography4822chinasenvironmentanddevelopment.docVIP

Geography 4822: china’s environment and development fall 2006 Professor Emily Yeh, 492-5438, yehe@ Class meetings: Fridays, 12-2:50 pm, Guggenheim 201E Office Hours: Guggenheim 103A, Mondays 1-3pm, Fridays 3-3:30pm, or by appointment Course Description China’s environmental problems are increasingly in the news. The Three Gorges Dam comes to mind, but so too does flooding on the Yangtze River, dust storms that blow from the Gobi Desert over the Pacific Ocean, the “greening” of Beijing in preparation for its much-awaited hosting of the 2008 Olympics, water shortages, deforestation, and dramatically increasing consumption patterns contributing to global climate change. With over one-fifth of the worlds population and an increasingly important role in international geopolitics, China has to be considered seriously in any attempt to address global questions of sustainable development. Legacies of what some have called 3000 years of unsustainable growth and Maos war on nature have only been exacerbated by two decades of rapid economic development, unchecked pollution, and increased inequality. With its history of dramatic policy swings and cycles of repression and accommodation, Chinas social and environmental future remain unclear. In this class, we will examine the many factors and processes which have contributed to the contemporary environmental situation, and responses to these problems from both the state and a growing environmental movement. In addition to the details of environmental problems and specific natural resource sectors in China, we will also consider more theoretical questions that arise when thinking about the relationship between environment and development. The class develops several overarching arguments. The most important is that processes of both environmental degradation and environmental protection are never merely “natural” problems that can be solved with purely technical solutions. Instead, they are always political, and we will