Wild world

Environmental issues in China

China’s worst-ever oil spill threatens wildlife as volunteers assist in clean-up Oil from Dalian pipeline explosion threatens marine animals, sea birds and water quality as slick spreads to 430km sq Chinese officials have warned of a severe threat to wildlife from one of the country’s worst reported oil spills as an army of volunteers was dispatched to beaches to try to head off the black tides.

When a Billion Chinese Jump by Jonathan Watts | Book review

• It’s always wise to be careful what you wish for. When China was poor and communist, its government disdained consumption and castigated the evils of capitalism, while in the west we argued that happiness lay in the joy of stuff. The good news is that China now agrees about the stuff, embracing a strange hybrid capitalism with distinctly Chinese characteristics.
• If this is a bleak story, it is because the prospects are bleak. Watts tries to balance this journey through dystopia with signs of hope, but we sense he would wish to be more convinced than the evidence allows. This book is not simply an indictment of China’s development path: it is a lesson for us all in the dangers of how we live. Will we heed the lesson and will China’s bid for sustainability prove more than a rebranding exercise? Any reader of When a Billion Chinese Jump must hope so.

China’s search for greener valueIn his new book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, Jonathan Watts tells the story of an unfolding ecological crisis as seen from the ground. Here, he talks to Sam Geall about its economic and cultural implications

Algae Blankets China Beaches; Dead Zone Brewing? Mats of green algae have covered miles of coastline in China, creating foul odors and possibly choking life underneath the waves.

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