biodiversity and environmentalism china’s environment: growth, resources, politics stevan harrell...
TRANSCRIPT
Biodiversity and Environmentalism
China’s Environment: Growth, Resources, Politics
Stevan HarrellCreative Retirement Institute
November 2013
Historical biodiversity loss
Mark Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants
Conventional Wisdom: Humans and Conservation
• Humans are the primary cause of biodiversity loss
• The way to conserve biodiversity is to stop human activity
• Preservation of wild environments is the key to conservation and biodiversity
• A Chinese view: Native peoples are particularly responsible for biodiversity loss in their own regions.
What’s right and wrong about the conventional wisdom
Right• Human activities can cause
species loss– Directly by hunting, fishing,
trapping– Indirectly by habitat loss
• Many species thrive in environments without humans
Wrong or at least questionable
• Human activities can increase biodiversity
• Conservation is not the same as preservation
• People living directly on the land are usually not the problem
The Great Conservation-Preservation controversyConservation• Resources• Sustainable Use• Anthropocentric• Balanced goals• Gifford Pinchot
Preservation• Nature• Minimal interaction• Biocentric• Single goal• John Muir
China’s Developmental Dilemma
Policy and Government Institutions:Unbridled development
• 1950s: Some attention, but development the main focus
• 1958-60 Great Leap Forward: massive environmental conversion
• 1966-76 Cultural Revolution: Politics and Pseudo-science
• 1979-98 Economic development at all costs• 1994 First Environmental NGO: Friends of Nature• 1998: The floods come
Policy and Government Institutions: The turn after 1998
• Growth of local environmental NGOs• Logging ban in the Southwest• Two great nationwide reforestation schemes• Elevation of the Environmental Protection
Bureau to Ministry status• Inclusion of environmental targets in cadre
evaluation • General growth in environmental propaganda
and education
Dealing with Pollution
Environmental Protests
• Average 29% per year increase since 1996• As many as 50,000 per year• 300,000 petitions 2006-2010• Large-scale protests against chemical plants
most common
Char’ismatic Meg’afauna
Ecotibet.org cultural-china.org
Questions to End On
• Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve work?
• Will the political system allow for prioritizing the environment?
• Will public consciousness go beyond personal health?
• How to manage the A in I=PAT?
URL for .pptx presentations and book list:http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/CRI%20China's%20Environment.html