Intellectuals and Public Opinion

In China, most intellectuals and public ignored environmental problems before the 1990s because modernization and industrialization started relatively later. Also, because of the special political institutions in China, the discussion of environmental problems is basically manipulated by government. But it is also worthy noticing that there has been more and more voice from individual intellectuals and non-government organizations discussing this issue and influencing policy making in China. In Japan, scholars, media, and non-government organizations started paying attention to environmental issues earlier than in China. But compared to the United States and European countries, how to deal with environmental problems basically is still a government behavior.

In the news:

• Kotler, Mindy L. and Ian T. Hillman, "Japanese Nuclear Energy Policy and Public Opinion," prepared in conjunction with an energy study sponsored by the Center for International Political Economy and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University - May 2000.

  "This paper examines these political and social trends through the prism of the debate over Japan's nuclear energy policy. The debate over nuclear power represents one of the first test cases of new institutional frameworks for political expression in Japan and for the evolving relationship between local and central government."

On the web:

• Friends of Nature
  

  A Chinese environmental NGO, formally registered in March 1994 as the Academy for Green Culture, an affiliate to the non-governmental Academy for Chinese Culture. FON is a nonprofit, public welfare organization funded by membership fees and public support.