Environmental Science & Policy 230 - Colloquium: Environment and Society in Contemporary China

China faces a range of environmental challenges in the 21st century: air pollution, water contamination, food scarcity, energy management and deforestation. The course considers these environmental issues, examining how they have come about; the Chinese response to them; their global impact; and the measures being proposed—and taken—to address them. Environmental issues are placed in the context of the social, economic and political changes that have occurred in China during the past few decades: economic growth, globalization, urbanization, population migration and media expansion. Finally, the course considers China’s traditional attitudes toward nature and the environment, and asks what role those attitudes play today. Enrollment limited to 18.