China Tells

China’s development is imperilled by environmental degradation and the reckless waste of natural resources. Smil’s second book on this subject examines the cost in terms of damage to the environment of the country’s rapid industrialisation, concentrating mainly on the implications of the huge increase in energy required for the process and on the problem of food security. The dismal prospect he sketches is one of continuing environmental deterioration in the first decade of this century, regardless of any action taken to prevent that happening, but Smil does suggest long-term actions which could prevent an even greater catastrophe in later years.