How Resource Scarcity Constrains China

China’s sheer vastness is arguably both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. China can harness the manpower and brainpower of 1.3 billion people, but it also has 1.3 billion people to feed, provide education and health care for, and supply energy to. In celebrating or bemoaning China’s rise, analysts can play up either side of the coin. Damien Ma, a fellow at the Paulson Institute in Chicago, and William Adams, a senior international economist for PNC Financial Services Group, have written a new book exploring the concept of scarcity in its many facets—from natural resources to implied political limits—and examining potential impacts on China’s future and the world’s. The authors of In Line Behind a Billion People recently shared their thoughts with Businessweek.

Natural resources are the most concrete example of how scarcity limits China, so let’s start there. What do you see as China’s most serious environmental constraints?