by Ed Norton
Time magazine
August 4, 2000

It’s safe to say that if you put Ma Jun’s face on a billboard in Beijing next to basketball star Yao Ming or screen beauty Ziyi Zhang, your average passerby wouldn’t have a clue who Ma is. But those who know might argue that China needs heroes like him much more urgently than it does a sports giant or a movie star. As the rapid industrial expansion of the world’s most populous nation surges forward, China’s decisions about how to use its natural resources and control its pollution will affect environmental health around the world. Ma Jun’s 1999 book China’s Water Crisis may be for China what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was for the U.S.„the country’s first great environmental call to arms. A journalist turned environmental advocate, Ma has emerged as a powerful voice in China, raising the alarm about the potentially catastrophic consequences of heedless, unsustainable growth. … Read the full story.