I was in Borders today and came across the latest venerated issue of Foreign Affairs and came across as one of the front cover stories, “The Great Leap Backward” discussing the consequences of economic growth with environmental damage going on in China:
“China’s environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate
because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.”
The fairly length article does go into a lot more detail than your average Time or Newsweek article. I have to imagine we are going to be seeing a flood of news reports on China from lead paint in children’s toys to the environment as we rapidly approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
