1970年代後半に鄧小平が市場改革を導入したとき、現在の中国の姿を想像した人はほとんどいなかったでしょう。それ以来中国のGDPは年平均10％近い成長を遂げ、今や世界第2位の経済規模を誇ります。40年前、道路を支配していたのは飛鴿（Flying Pigeon）の自転車でしたが、今や中国は世界最大の自動車市場となっています。また、40年前には上海の外灘から黄浦江を眺めると、農地といくつかの倉庫や埠頭が見えましたが、今では浦東の未来的な都市景観が広がっています。この間の物質的な発展は、中国人の誇りであり、支配者である中国共産党の正統性を示すものでもあるのです。
しかし、この進歩の裏で、大きな代償も払っています。中国の大気、水、土壌は極度に汚染され、人々の健康に深刻な打撃を与えてきました。本書は中国の環境悪化の原因となっている経済的、社会的、政治的、歴史的な要因を考察し、広範な汚染に対する国民の反応、政府が環境浄化のために取っている措置、化石燃料への依存度を下げ、クリーンなエネルギー源を開発するための中国の取り組みについても取り上げます。世界で最も困難な環境危機に直面している中国を知る手がかりとして最適な概説書です。
   

• A concise overview of the environmental crisis in China, which despite government efforts, continues to worsen
• Shows why the environmental problems in China should matter to everyone
• Covers the crisis in air, land, and water pollution and explains the effects it is having on the health of the Chinese people

　
When Deng Xiaoping introduced market reforms in the late 1970s, few would have imagined what the next four decades would bring. China's GDP has grown on average nearly 10 percent annually since, and its economy is now the second largest in the world. Forty years ago, the Flying Pigeon bicycle ruled the roads; today, China is the world's largest car market. And if forty years ago you looked out across the Huangpu River from the Bund in Shanghai, you would have seen farmland and a few warehouses and wharves; now you see the stunning, futuristic cityscape of Pudong. The material progress of the past forty years has been staggering-a source of pride for the Chinese people, as well as a source of legitimacy for the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
　
But that progress has come at great cost: the extreme pollution of China's air, water, and soil has taken a stark toll on human health. In Environmental Pollution in China: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Daniel K. Gardner examines the range of factors-economic, social, political, and historical-contributing to the degradation of China's environment. He also covers the public response to the widespread pollution; the measures the government is taking to clean up the environment; and the country's efforts to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels and develop clean sources of energy. Concise, accessible, and authoritative, this book serves as an ideal primer on one of the world's most challenging environmental crises.