Abstract: China’s diverse industrial sector is the driving force of the nation’s post-1978 economic “miracle.” While conditions will change in the coming decades as nations in South and Southeast Asia and Africa with lower cost labor and land make inroads, China remains a vibrant manufacturing sector that must be credited with both the nation’s new-found
Abstract: Despite two millennia of widespread ecological degradation and an unmatched human population, China is one of the world’s most biologically diverse countries. Its vast land area encompasses an astonishing variety of biomes, ecosystems, flora, and fauna. New nature conservation policies include the rapid expansion of the nation’s protected area system, but daunting challenges remain.
Abstract: China is home to roughly half the world’s large dams and probably a similar fraction of smaller ones. These structures alter the flow of thousands of the country’s rivers, creating hydroelectricity, providing irrigation and flood control, and flattening stretches of river that would otherwise be unnavigable. Yet dams are controversial: they can bring significant
Abstract: Railways for passengers and freight offer strategic advantages in terms of energy efficiency and the ease of adaptation to electric mobility. The relatively small infrastructure footprint of modern rail also facilitates integration into densely developed spaces like city centers. These advantages and other benefits—such as the economic revival of regions left behind by globalization—fit well
Abstract: While the term environmental justice has different nuances of meaning for activists, academics, and politicians, most agree that it encompasses the need for a healthy environment for all with the same degree of protection from environmental risks and with equal access to environmental goods. This is in line with sustainability goals to fulfill the
Abstract: Food and drink have played a central role in Chinese religious and ceremonial life from ancient times to the present. The role of food and drink is conspicuous not only in terms of banquet and drinking etiquette, but also in a wide variety of religious practices observed throughout the Chinese-speaking world. These range from ancestral
Abstract: Nearly ubiquitous in China today, beef was not always so popular. Unlike pork, beef was traditionally a highly regional taste. While people in northern cities like Beijing consumed large amounts of beef, those in many other areas considered the idea of eating beef to be disgusting and even immoral. As beef consumption grew during the
Abstract: From antiquity, Chinese poets wrote about all aspects of food: its cultivation, its preparation, its prominence in celebrations, its importance in ancestral rites, its pleasures, and the pain of its absence. Poets contrasted lavish banquets with hunger and starvation; they crafted allegories and metaphors from food: an orange was compared to a virtuous man, bitter
Abstract: While many new technologies carry the promise of creating a better world, they often have unintended consequences. The promise of blockchains is trust-minimizing and immutable peer-to-peer interactions, but early blockchain platforms have faced a great deal of skepticism regarding their environmental sustainability, and continue to cast their shadow over the technology’s potential today. Citation:
Abstract: The term “impact investing” describes the work of companies, organizations, and funds seeking to achieve measurable social and environmental gains while also generating financial returns. This sector has struggled with how to measure—quantitatively and qualitatively—the impact of investments. The past decade has witnessed the emergence of formal institutions that have achieved some success in addressing
