Book description
When a Billion Chinese Jump tells the story of China's - and the
world's - biggest crisis. With foul air, filthy water, rising
temperatures and encroaching deserts, China is already suffering an
environmental disaster. Now it faces a stark choice: either accept
catastrophe, or make radical changes. Traveling the vast country to
witness this environmental challenge, Jonathan Watts moves from
mountain paradises to industrial wastelands, examining the responses
of those at the top of society to the problems and hopes of those
below. At heart his book is not a call for panic, but a demonstration
that - even with the crisis so severe, and the political scope so
limited - the actions of individuals can make a difference.
Consistently attentive to human detail, Watts vividly portrays
individual lives in a country all too often viewed from outside as a
faceless state. No reader of his book - no consumer in the world - can
be unaffected by what he presents.
Jonathan Watts is the Guardian's Asia environment correspondent.
