ABSTRACT
Taiwan has reaped the benefits of its impressive economic growth and modernization since the 1950s, with rapid increases in gross national product (GNP), per capita income, international economic standing, and other indexes. These are all well known. At the same time, however, Taiwan was also laying the foundation for serious environmental problems, which have begun to surface in ever-increasing numbers and severity. As all nation-states come to learn, there is a price to be paid for rapid industrialization, urbanization, and high mass consumption. That price, moreover, is compounded in those places, such as Taiwan, with very high population densities and limited resource bases.
