Download or read book China's Past, China's Future written by Vaclav Smil and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China has a population of 1.3 billion people which puts strain on her natural resources. This volume, by one of the leading scholars on the earth's biosphere, is the result of a lifetime of study, and provides the fullest account yet of the environmental challenges that China faces. The author examines China's energy resources, their uses, impacts and prospects, from the 1970s oil crisis to the present day, before analysing the key question of how China can best produce enough food to feed its enormous population.