UC-Riverside partners with Chinese university to address China's environmenta...( RIVERSIDE Calif. According to the W...)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. According to the World Bank, China has one of the worst pollution problems on the planet, and is second only to the United States in emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming. China is also home to 20 of the worlds 30 most air-polluted cities.

To address Chinas increasing environmental challenges, such as smog, acid rain and water pollution, scientists at UC Riverside and China Agricultural University (CAU) have teamed up to launch a new center: the CAU-UCR International Center for Ecology and Sustainability.

Located in Beijing, China, the center will attempt to solve environmental and agricultural problems, restore damaged ecosystems, and ensure food safety concerns common not just to China and Southern California but the world at large.

This center brings together some of the leading researchers at UCR with colleagues at CAU, the premier agricultural university in China, to solve what is being recognized as the major challenge of the 21st century, said Charles Louis, vice chancellor for research at UCR. The proposed bidirectional exchanges of faculty and students will enhance both research and partnerships between California and China.

Besides doing collaborative research on key ecological and sustainable development issues, the center will promote public awareness of these issues and advise policy-makers at the local, regional, federal and global levels on important questions in ecosystem management.

The issues of ecology and sustainability facing China today are massive and, in many cases, mirror those faced by California, said Bai-lian (Larry) Li, a professor of ecology in UCRs Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, who joins Wenliang Wu, the chief scientist of the National Agroecology Program and provost at CAU, in co-d
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