chinadialogue has released an ebook, “China’s Green Revolution”, of articles and commentary on environmental aspects of the 12th Five Year Plan. From the introduction, by Isabel Hilton:
The transition from one FYP plan to the next is a key moment in China, closely watched by foreign and Chinese analysts. After 30 years of breakneck growth, with all the attendant difficulties and consequences of that model of development, the 12th FYP demonstrates a much more robust ambition to make the difficult transition towards a more sustainable model. If it is successful, the 12th FYP could prove to be a pivotal moment in Chinese development, of international as well as domestic importance.
China’s strategic challenge is to get onto a more sustainable development path, while meeting public expectations of improved living standards and employment. The current development model is exhausted for a number of familiar reasons: it is still too inefficient, too wasteful of energy and natural resources, it generates too many damaging externalities and it depends on an abundant pool of cheap labour, which China no longer has. At a similar stage of development, Japan, Korea and Taiwan all made the transition to higher value, more innovative and more technologically advanced models, much as China is trying to do today. In China’s case, the urgency is the greater because of three decades of damage to water, air, soil and human health, with the attendant social unrest they have brought.
The book is available in EPUB and PDF formats (free) and on Kindle ($1, Amazon’s minimum price).
Also on chinadialogue is managing editor Meng Si’s post on the results of the 2011 Environmental Press Awards. (Jonathan Watts’ post at the The Guardian, which co-sponsors the awards, was featured on CDT late last week.) The post includes links to chinadialogue’s translations of four of the five top prize winning articles:
Best investigative report
By Lu Zongshu, Southern Weekly
Best in-depth report (two winners)
By Yang Chuanmin, Southern Metropolitan Daily
2) The Alarm from Zhouqu
By Gong Jing, Wang Heyan, Zhang Ruidan, New Century Weekly
Best human interest story
The birdwatching lama of Qinghai
By Geng Dong, Shanshui Conservation Centre
Most influential report
Burned by the sun: solar subsidies and poor oversight in China
By Yuan Ying, Southern Weekly
