Environmental Perspectives and Behavior in China

Some of the world's most profound environmental changes are under way in China. Studying the underlying forces of environment-related behaviors at all levels in China is therefore extraordinarily important. This essay helps people outside China increase their understanding of these variables by summarizing findings of Chinese-language surveys conducted in China to measure environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. People in different parts of China have differences in perceptions and behaviors. The article takes a macroscopic snapshot of how the Chinese view their environment as a prelude to analyses of more particularistic perceptions and actions. This snapshot depicts environmental destruction and rampant resource exploitation that is likely to continue for decades to come. However, by understanding this trend it may be possible to findways of eventually slowing it and thereby mitigating long-term environmental damage. The article includes an annotated bibliography of Chinese-language reports on environmental attitudes and behaviors.