Environmental Attitudes in China and Future Climate Change

The Minor Foundation were funding the project "Environmental Attitudes in China and Future Climate Change: Reshaping Destructive Attitudes for Worldwide Benefits" by Paul G. Harris, Associate Professor, Lingnan University. The project involved ascertaining attitudes of Chinese people toward environmental issues, particularly global warming/climate change and associated energy usage, with the aim of mitigating associated behaviour that contributes to global warming and, in turn, climate change.

Findings for the project drew upon surveys and tertiary literature. Outputs of the project have included the following:

Research papers: Two research papers, intended for publication in refereed journals, have been written: "Environmental Perspectives and Behavior in China: Synopsis and Bibliography" and "Green or Brown? Environmental Attitudes and Priorities in China" (copies enclosed). The first was revised and resubmitted to a journal, so it is likely to be published relatively soon, and the second is currently being refereed by another journal. Another paper, which drew on some of the work for this project, was published as Paul G. Harris, "'Getting Rich is Glorious': Environmental Values in the People's Republic of China," Environmental Values journal, vol. 13, no. 2 (2004): 145-165.

Working paper: A report that brings together much of the material and ideas in the research papers just described was published by Lingnan University's Centre for Asian Pacific Studies as Paul G. Harris and Yu Hongyuan, "Chinese Environmental Attitudes and Climate Change: Survey Findings on Precursors of China's Domestic and International Policies on Global Warming".

Presentations: Two presentations drawing from this research were given to audiences in Hong Kong: "China and Climate Change," a presentation to the Semester at Sea Program aboard S.S. Universe Explorer, 2 April 2004 and "Environmental Attitudes and Values in China," a presentation to the Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University of Hong Kong, 31 March 2004. A presentation that used some of the work from this project was "Environmental Values in a Globalizing World: The Case of China," presented at the Workshop on Reconceiving Environmental Values in a Globalizing World, Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society, Mansfield College, Oxford, England,

Internet Website: Perhaps the most important product has been the creation of a Website on "Global Warming and Environmental Values in China." Most of this Website is in Chinese (both traditional and simplified script, the latter used on the Mainland). An English-language synopsis is located at www.ln.edu.hk

Oppdatert: 12.01.2009 17:01
av Jorunn Gran