ABSTRACT
China’s rapid industrialization created an environmental crisis, and scientists have extensively and exhaustively documented the nation’s litany of ecological woes (as outlined by Dr. Elizabeth Economy elsewhere in this book). The reality is more complex than is presented. It is true that China is the world’s second-leading emitter of greenhouse gases, including the most important of these gases, carbon dioxide. But it is also the case that China’s historical and per capita emissions remain well below those of the industrialized world. Furthermore, China—with its dense urban populations, low-lying coastal regions, floodplains, and agriculture-dependent regions—is among the most vulnerable of nations to the negative impacts of a changing climate.
