Faber & Faber

When a Billion Chinese Jump: Jonathan Watts

Synopsis:

When a Billion Chinese Jump tells the story of China’s - and the world’s - greatest crisis. With filthy water, choking emissions and an unsustainable appetite for resources, China’s development has taken our planet to the environmental edge. Now it faces a stark choice that will affect us all: accept catastrophe or make radical change.

To explore the response, award-winning correspondent Jonathan Watts travels from mountain paradise to blasted desert, through eco-cities, coal mines and industrial wastelands, examining the challenges facing those at the top of society and the problems and hopes of those below.

His travelogue will interest anyone concerned with economic development, energy security, globalisation or climate activism. At heart, it is not a call for panic, but an expression of hope that - despite political constraints - individual choices can make a difference.

Consistently attentive to human detail, Watts vividly portrays the diversity of a country too often viewed as a faceless machine. No reader of his book - no consumer in the world - can be unaffected by what he presents.

Further Reading:

China: The next superconsumer? Serialisation in the Guardian

When a Billion Chinese Jump website

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• Audio snippet: Jonathan Watts reads from 'When a Billion Chinese Jump' [1 of 2]
• Audio snippet: Jonathan Watts reads from 'When a Billion Chinese Jump' [2 of 2]

Tags:

Categorised as:

Non-fiction

Sub-categories:

Current Affairs; Travel

Places:

China

Genres & Themes:

Cities; Civilisations; Environment; Global Warming; Globalisation; Travelogue