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Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered a promising alternative to conventional vehicles (CVs) to alleviate the oil crisis and reduce urban air pollution and carbon emissions. Consumers usually focus on the tangible cost when choosing an EV or CV but overlook the time cost for restricting purchase or driving and the environmental cost from gas emissions, falling to have a comprehensive understanding of the economic competitiveness of CVs and EVs. In this study, a life cycle cost model for vehicles is conducted to express traffic and environmental policies in monetary terms, which are called intangible cost and external cost, respectively. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and CVs are compared in four first-tier, four new first-tier, and 4 s-tier and below cities in China. The comparison shows that BEVs and FCEVs in most cities are incomparable with CVs in terms of tangible cost. However, the prominent traffic and environmental policies in first-tier cities, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, greatly increase the intangible and external costs of CVs, making consumers more inclined to purchase BEVs and FCEVs. The main policy benefits of BEVs and FCEVs come from three aspects: government subsidies, purchase and driving restrictions, and environmental taxes. With the predictable reduction in government subsidies, traffic and environmental policies present important factors influencing the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs. In first-tier cities, BEVs and FCEVs already have a competitive foundation for large-scale promotion. In new first-tier and second-tier and below cities, stricter traffic and environmental policies need to be formulated to offset the negative impact of the reduction in government subsidies on the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis reveals that increasing the mileage and reducing fuel prices can significantly improve the competitiveness of BEVs and FCEVs, respectively. • An LCC model is proposed to quantify the economic impact of vehicle policies. • Traffic and environmental policies in twelve cities are computed in monetary terms. • BEVs and FCEVs have excellent economic competitiveness in first-tier cities. • Stricter traffic and environmental policies should be implemented in other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proliferating environmental sustainability policy frameworks suggest that sustainability and economic competitiveness are essentially interdependent and mutually enhancing. Under these policy discourses, cities are designated as strategic geographical locales for fulfilling the green capitalist goal of reconciling the contradictions between the environment and development that have long bedeviled capitalism. While most urban sustainability agendas are crafted based on the experience of post-industrial countries, the promise of green capitalism and sustainability faces different challenges where industrial production still dominates the economy. However, research on whether and how urban sustainability policies are geographically variegated is still sparse, particularly beyond western (post)industrial capitalism. Examining the Dongtan eco-city project and the associated Chongming eco-island project in Shanghai, we interrogate how sustainability is imagined and practiced on the ground within the distinctive Chinese context. The meanings of sustainability in Dongtan and Chongming reflect the context of Chinese urbanization in the Shanghai area. Both Dongtan and Chongming seek to develop green technologies as a way to resolve the dilemma of being caught between urbanization and agriculture. This approach is also shaped by Chongming's island geography as enabling a self-sufficient development trajectory, and its desire to attract a cosmopolitan population. Through these place-specific contexts, the ecology and economy of Dongtan and Chongming become intertwined, producing and reproducing a variegated form of urban sustainability, and of “green capitalism.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shanghai is China's biggest city at a high development level that is beset by very complex environmental problems calling for an urgent solution in the run-up to the international Expo 2010 exhibition. Different assessments are made of the environmental situation in Shanghai. The greatest problems are caused by the condition of the atmosphere and water and the continuing accumulation of solid wastes. Pollution of the city's atmosphere with carbon dioxide is at record levels for China and beyond. Major challenges confront the city in water conservation and water supply for its population. And yet, Shanghai has all the assets to become the driving force of a rational environmental policy for the rest of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shanghai and Singapore are two economically vibrant Asian cities that have recently adopted creative/cultural economy strategies. In this article I examine new spatial expressions of cultural and economic interests in the two cities: state-vaunted cultural edifices and organically evolved cultural spaces. I discuss the simultaneous precariousness and sustainability of these spaces, focusing on Shanghai's Grand Theatre and Moganshan Lu and on Singapore's Esplanade—Theatres by the Bay and Wessex Estate. Their cultural sustainability is understood as their ability to support the development of indigenous content and local idioms in artistic work. Their social sustainability is examined in terms of the social inclusion and community bonds they engender; environmental sustainability refers to the articulation with the language of existing urban forms and the preservation of or improvements to the landscape. Although both Shanghai and Singapore demonstrate simultaneous precariousness and sustainability, Singapore's city-state status places greater pressure on it to ensure sustainability than does Shanghai, within a much larger China in which Beijing serves as the cultural hearth while Shanghai remains essentially a commercial center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ideas of approximately 700 Chinese high school students (aged 11 to 16) from the city of Shanghai and Zhejiang Province have been investigated using a closed questionnaire to find out the extent to which they believed that various actions might help reduce global warming. The results show that students appear to have some understanding of the issue, with certain correct ideas increasing with age, and various incorrect ideas decreasing. Amongst the most popular ideas, however, were a number of misconceptions, some of which, alarmingly, increased in popularity with age. In the affective domain, a high proportion of students felt that responsibility for taking action against global warming should be shared between government, industries and the individual, with a high degree of willingness for more education and legislation to help overcome the problem. There was less support for taxation, individual or corporate, to help alleviate the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the result of the survey carried out in Qi-yi Commune Shanghai, China in 1981 concerning occupational health in small plants. The survey reveals that in 16 of 24 plants, health services are provided by health workers corresponding to the barefoot doctors in the brigade health centers. It stresses that the problem of occupational health in small plants are very serious, where environmental protection may be even more difficult. It suggests that to establish occupational health care network, training of personnel at different level is very important. Accordingly, the survey points out that plants having health hazards should collect data from environmental monitoring and the active health surveillance system should be in place to offer information.