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. But such staggering progress has come at great cost : rampant pollution of the country's air, water, and soil. In Environmental pollution in China : what everyone needs to know, Daniel K. Gardner examines the range of factors, economic, social, political, and historical, that have contributed to the degradation of China's environment. He explores the effects of pollution on human health, 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."--Page 4 de la couverture.