Mao's war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary China

Most environmental problems have roots in human relationships and are ultimately social, political, and cultural. Maoist China is an extreme example of human interference in the natural world during an era in which human relationships were unusually distorted. The period provides a transparent illustration of the relationship between human exploitation and environmental degradation, exemplifying the tragedy of this interface under extreme conditions. The environmental dynamics of Mao-era China illustrate a congruence between abuse of human beings and abuse of nature. Mao's "war against nature," revealed through interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly monographs, and books in Chinese and English,…