Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State

A timely collection examining a diverse region’s environmental shifts

East Asia hosts a fifth of the world’s population and consumes over half the world’s coal, a quarter of its petroleum products, and a tenth of its natural gas. It also produces a third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, making it a major contributor to climate change. The region―whose countries share ecological, sociocultural, and political characteristics while varying in size, resource wealth, history, and political systems―offers excellent insights into the complex dynamics influencing environmental politics, advocacy, and policy. With essays addressing Japan after Fukushima, coal plants and wind turbines in China, environmental activism in Taiwan, and sustainable rural development in South Korea, Greening East Asia explores a region’s shift from development to “eco-development” in acknowledgment that environmental sustainability is a critical component of economic growth.

Ashley Esarey is assistant professor of political science at the University of Alberta. Mary Alice Haddad is professor of government, East Asian studies, and environmental studies at Wesleyan University. Joanna I. Lewis is associate professor of energy and environment at Georgetown University. Stevan Harrell is professor emeritus of anthropology and environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington. The other contributorsare Daniel Benjamin Abramson, Simon Avenell, Hsi-Wen Chang (Lenglengman Rovaniyaw), Hua-mei Chiu, Jingyun Dai, Iza Ding, Rob Efird, Hwa-Sheng Gau, Chung Ho Kim, Eunjung Lim, Hui-Nien Lin, Dau-Jye Lu, Kurtis Jia-Chyi Pei, Noriko Sakamoto, Anthony J. Spires, Sasala Taiban, and Yves Tiberghien.