Abstract: Everything seems to hinge on China, yet there are so many contradictions. For some, China is the culprit, as it is the largest greenhouse gas emitting country in the world and many Chinese citizens suffer from the deadly air and water pollution. For others, China is mainly a victim—much of the environmental stress comes from manufacturing cheap consumer goods for the Western countries. And moreover, China is sometimes perceived as our new hope, as China has been the biggest investor in renewable energy and constructed 20,000 km of high-speed rail in about 10 years. How should we understand China's environmental challenges? Professor John Chung-En Liu will introduce the general picture and offer useful analytical angles to understand the dynamics of China's environmental governance.
About the Speaker: John Chung-En Liu is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and an affiliated faculty in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Occidental College. Before joining Oxy, he was the China Energy Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Liu got his PhD in sociology from University 0f Wisconsin-Madison, master's degree in economics and environmental management from Yale University. Before becoming a social scientist, he is a chemical engineering major. Professor Liu conducts research on climate change policy and environmental attitudes and behaviors.
This lecture is sponsored by CSUN China Institute and the College of Humanities. It is free and open to the public. Campus map is available at this link, www.csun.edu/csun-maps, and public parking is available on campus (www.csun.edu/parking/visitor-parking-information). Please contact Dr. Weimin Sun at
(818-677-6461) for more information.