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July 2, 2017

China in climate driver’s seat after Trump rejects Paris

By: James Miller

Protesters gather outside the White House in Washington D.C. after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the Unites States from the Paris climate change accord. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) James Miller, Queen’s University, Ontario With President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate change accords, it’s now clear to the world that […]

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August 18, 2016

China: Landscapes, Cultures, Ecologies, Religions

By: James Miller

James Miller Prepublication draft from Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology edited by Willis Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, New York: Routledge 2016, 181-189 As the third largest country in the world, China has a vast geographic diversity: arid deserts and snow-capped mountains of Xinjiang in the far West; the unique landscape of the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau, […]

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December 26, 2014

video lecture: james miller speaks on china’s green religion at the university of southern california’s us-china institute

By: James Miller

The monumental task that China faces in the 21st century is to create a way of development that does not destroy the ecological foundations for the life and livelihood of its 1.4 billion citizens. This requires a creative leap beyond the Enlightenment mentality and the Western model of industrialization. Can China’s cultural traditions, its religious […]

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Will Canada Ever End its Demonization of China?

By: James Miller

The demonization of China – as shown by refusal to accept Confucius Institutes – is a toxic flaw that runs deep in Canadian history and culture.   As Premier Kathleen Wynne returns from China and as Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits Beijing for the APEC summit, the partnership and goodwill between China and Canada that brought […]

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China’s Green Religion? Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future

By: James Miller

The monumental task that China faces in the 21st century is to create a way of development that does not destroy the ecological foundations for the life and livelihood of its 1.4 billion citizens. This requires a creative leap beyond the Enlightenment mentality and the Western model of industrialization. Can China’s cultural traditions, its religious […]

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why china will solve the world’s environmental problems

By: James Miller

Quick! Picture China’s biggest environmental problem. I bet you saw in your mind the polluted skies of Beijing and its citizens wearing face masks as they go to work. The western news media have been filled with alarming stories of China’s poor air quality, especially in the north, where China relies more heavily on coal-fired power […]

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October 1, 2013

Is Green the New Red? The Role of Religion in Creating a Sustainable China

By: James Miller

James Miller. 2013. “Is Green the New Red? The Role of Religion in Creating a Sustainable China.” Nature and Culture 8.3: 249-264.  http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/nc.2013.080302 Abstract The Chinese Daoist Association has embarked upon an ambitious agenda to promote Daoism as China’s “green religion”. This new construction of a “green Daoism” differs, however, from both traditional Chinese and modern Western interpretations of the affinity […]

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August 10, 2013

Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China

By: James Miller

James Miller, Dan Smyer Yu and Peter van der Veer, eds. 2014. Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China. New York: Routledge. This book sheds light on the social imagination of nature and environment in contemporary China. It demonstrates how the urgent debate on how to create an ecologically sustainable future for the world’s most populous country is […]

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