Abstract:  In the 1960s and 1970s， Shanghai was plagued by serious air pollution due to the leaking of industrial toxic gases and the floating and fall of smoke and dusts. In fact， supervisors and functional departments did attend to the problems and respond in two ways: political “active response” from “departments in charge in the national governance” and the bottom-up  “compelled response” on the spot. In 1972， the Chinese delegation attended the first UN Conference on Human Environment. In 1973， following a national conference on environmental protection， Shanghai made great efforts in the management and treatment of environmental problems after general surveys and implementation of policies. However， industrial and mining enterprises gave various lame excuses that “three wastes” (waste water， waste gases and waster residues) were inevitable and difficult to handle. In addition， factories transferred toxic product lines to the suburban enterprises， causing unchecked pollution. As a result， the pollution levels in Shanghai far exceeded the healthy standard. During the ten years， Shanghai’s industrial production had been growing together with increased energy consumption， leading to excessive industrial discharges and insufficient pollution treatment; the unit ownership defined by property rights determined the result that industrial and mining enterprises “aimed at profit”， producing die-hard problems of “production outweighing pollution treatment” in the “unit-prioritized” management mode; and the rash “workshop” governance practised by local departments violated the laws of modern science-based environmental governance. It is the superposition of these three factors that eventually led to the dilemma of “governance without effectiveness”.

Key words: 1960s and 1970s, Shanghai Municipality, industrial discharge, air pollution, “governance without effectiveness”