Abstract
Economic growth creates wealth, employment, and also effluents. In China, as in other rapidly industrializing economies, pollution poses serious challenges to both citizens and governments. High growth rates, high population density, and China’s long history of intense human pressure on the land magnify environmental hazards. It is therefore no surprise that Chinese episodes now join the Donora Pennsylvania air inversion of 1948, the smoke emergencies of the 1950s in London, New York City, and Belgium’s Meuse Valley, multiple conflagrations on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, and Japan’s Minamata disease in the annals of environmental disasters associated with industrial growth.
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© 2009 Thomas G. Rawski
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Rawski, T.G. (2009). Urban Air Quality in China: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. In: Islam, N. (eds) Resurgent China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234253_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234253_13
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