The River Runs Black

Reviews and Endorsements

Voted one of the top 50 books on sustainability by the University of Cambridge's program for sustainability leadership in 2010

Elizabeth C. Economy's book hits my 'top ten' list....It is a clear and compelling reminder that no engagement with Chinacommercial, diplomatic, cultural, intellectualcan afford to ignore China's vast environmental dilemmas and the deep social, economic, and political structural problems that make environmental salvation an uncertain enterprise at best. The case for international engagement with China emerges even more strongly from this book; the case for 'irrational exuberance' is dashed to smithereens.

Robert A. Kapp, President, U.S.China Business Council

Rivers run black, deserts advance from the north, and smoky haze covers the country. Elizabeth C. Economy both provides a gripping account of a severely degraded environment and thoughtfully analyzes what could be China's most important challenge in the twentyfirst century.

Gordon G. Chang, author, The Coming Collapse of China

Elizabeth C. Economy captures extraordinarily well the complex historical, systemic, political, economic, and international forces that are shaping China's environmental outcomes. No other volume on this enormously important issue is as comprehensive, balanced, and incisive. True to her deep understanding of the crosscurrents of China's present environmental efforts, Economy is agnostic about which of three startlingly different futures will come to pass. Her book enables us to understand both the potential for each of these futures and the means to lessen the chances of environmental meltdown on the Chinese mainland.

Kenneth Lieberthal, Professor of Political Science and Professor of International Business at the University of Michigan

Elizabeth C. Economy has written a wellresearched analysis of the environmental degradation that has occurred in China and its implications for the rest of the world. This book will provide critical guidance for the U.S. and other nations to pursue enlightened policies that will help the Chinese address our mutual environmental problems.

Theodore Roosevelt IV, environmentalist and Chair of Strategies for the Global Environment