China's Engine of Environmental Collapse - Paperback

by Richard Smith (Author)

As the world hurtles towards environmental oblivion, China is leading the charge. The country's CO2 emissions are more than double those of the US yet its GDP is just two-thirds as large. China leads the world in solar and wind energy generation but it's building new coal-fired power plants even faster than renewables. The country's lakes, rivers and aquifers are severely polluted. Twenty percent of China's farmland has been declared too toxic to farm. Yet this 'socialist' government still prioritizes growth over the environment. Why is China's environmental crisis so much worse than 'normal' capitalism most everywhere else, and why can't China's fiercely authoritarian government suppress pollution from its own industries? Richard Smith argues China's economy is driven by extra-economic nationalist-industrialist imperatives which are more powerful than the maximization of profit. Yet both Western capitalism and China's 'communist-capitalism' are racing each other to apocalypse. He contends that nothing short of drastic industrial shutdowns and retrenchments, especially in China and the US, will suffice to slash emissions enough to save the planet - but implementing such policies without precipitating economic collapse will require a transition to ecosocialism. This book brings together environmental science, political science, economics and sociology in a uniquely comprehensive analysis that will change the debate from market meliorism to the need for radical system change.

Author Biography

Richard Smith wrote his PhD thesis on China's economic reforms and has written extensively Chinese issues for New Left Review, Monthly Review, Real-World Economics Review, and Ecologist. He has also written essays collected in Green Capitalism: The God that Failed (2016) and in The Democracy Collaborative's Next System Project (2017). Smith is also a founding member of the US-based group System Change Not Climate Change.