History matters: Contingency in the creation of ecologically unequal exchange

Abstract

It is argued in this chapter that energy extraction and use in China developed on a very different trajectory than in Europe or the Amazon Basin in Brazil that Stephen Bunker focused on in his fieldwork to develop the concept of ecologically unequal exchange. This difference resulted from unique aspects of Chinese geography and geology, as well as China's response to imperialism from the late nineteenth century. Nor did the so-called resource curse strike China, despite considerable Western interest in its coal reserves in the nineteenth century. The case of China discussed in this chapter reinforces the importance of history and contingency in any understanding of ecologically unequal exchange.