Jianguo (Jack) Liu at the Woolong Nature Reserve in the Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by Sue Nichols, University Relations) (Hi-res jpg)

Where China goes, the rest follow in global neighborhood

Contact: Jianguo “Jack” Liu, (517) 432-5025, jliu@panda.msu.edu; or Sue Nichols, University Relations, (517) 353-8942, nichols@msu.edu

EAST LANSING , Mich. – Globalization is making it a small world, after all, and the costs of this newfound neighborliness are high.

Two internationally acclaimed scientists present sweeping evidence that China 's challenges – from polluted air and water to making and consuming goods to family life – already are making a big impact on the environment and human well-being in China and other parts of the world, including America and Europe .

The developed nations must take a more active role – with policy, with aid and through business – to assist and support developing countries and recognize that the only real borders are drawn on paper.

“The world is increasingly connected,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University . “If we want to make the environment in China better – and there are many important reasons for us to – the whole world needs to do something about it.”

Liu, University Distinguished professor and director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at MSU, has joined with Pulitzer-prize winning
author Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at UCLA, to write
“China's Environment in a Globalizing World – How China and the Rest of the
World Affect Each Other” in the June 30 issue of the international science journal Nature.

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