China Increases Its Lead As The World's Biggest Polluter

New York Times:

China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year's global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found.

The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, found that in 2007 China's emissions were 14 percent higher than those of the United States. In the previous year's annual study, the researchers found for the first time that China had become the world's leading emitter, with carbon emissions 7 percent higher by volume than the United States in 2006.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[WasteNJ]

Ever see the movie "Blade Runner"?

Looks the same, except no flying cars.

[leduck]

those evil chinese
how dare the chinese try to develop like us
they should just go back to riding bicycles and stop watching tv
they need to just go back to their rice patties
so we can go back to our cheap gas and SUVs

maybe we can invade them and force a change in govt.
and then we can illiminate their evil one child per family policy too

evil chinese

[Blutus]

Wow. Touch a nerve?

It's not about evil. The Chinese are supposed to be turning America into a third world coutry.
Of course, after they rebuild after the earthquake, clean their air and water, pull off the Olympics
and feed themselves. No problem.

And they are so intelligent. All those Asians in America with those SAT 800s in math.

So, dear learner of English, are the Chinese really, really the smartest people in the world.


Don't look like it now does it Sparky?

Third World America. ANY SECOND NOW!!

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

I believe we turned OURSELVES into a third world country, sir.

[WasteNJ]

It's sarcasm.... the "evil Chinese" thing.

And in prose form? How fun!

[WilliePilgrim]

So, in retrospect, it appears that Kyoto signatories are not the environmental heroes that we were led to believe...and FYI it is abundantly clear that CO2 aside, the biggest danger to polar bears, and indeed all ocean life, is not warming, but the heavy metals and soot which is the result of nations like China and India, the so called "developing nations"...though in truth they should be called "developing superpowers who are mad to catch up at any cost, environment be damned"...using cheap coal and even cheaper and fewer environmental remedies that the industrialized west would ever consider.
What a sad kettle of mercury laden fish we have.
Perhaps if we pull the wool away from our eyes we'll see that we've been deluded by fear and guilt and come to our senses and lead the way to a clean and healthy future by virtue of the gains we've made and not by hobbling our horses.

[aristippe]

china is constructing 2 new coal plants every month

[VivaZapata]

The pretend communist country with its slave labor market and military-industrial mentality is choking on its sold-out air.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

Hey, that sounds just like the U.S., which has the biggest prison population in the world and a huge "captive labor" market. Just ask Microsoft and Starbucks, which have "programs" to exploit this labor. The Corporatocracy pays about $1.50/hr and no overhead because we, the taxpayers, pay for their workers' captivity. Aren't we great? (NOT)

This is why we need to legalize drugs: This bogus "drug war" is just a way to destroy poor communities and provide slave labor for the corporatists. Most of our inmates are locked up for petty and nonviolent crimes. For shame.

[Blutus]

You have no idea how many people are in prison in China and neither does the rest of the world. How many in Burma? Cuba? Russia? No one knows.

I would suggest there are many, many more Chinese in prison
than Americans where on any given day 30% just may be from another country and here illegally. Details, details.

[raker]

Go to any industrial city in China, or Eastern Europe, or Southeast Asia, and you wonder how people can live with the unbearable air pollution, and you realize how we take for granted the clean air and water we have at home, Then visit an industrial plant and see the open ditches, rat's nests of old elecrical wires, danger everywhere you turn, and you think how lucky for us to have safe workplaces in America - all thanks to government regulation. The more the Republicans hack away at regulation, the dirtier and more dangerous our world will become again.

[willfarnaby]

How very correct you are!

[mamacat]

The conditions described are part of the reason that it is cheaper to manufacture goods in Asia than in America or Europe - they don't have as many rules. Of course, under the GOP, the rules are being removed in the U.S. - not the rules that apply to the behaviour of little people, but the rules that apply to the behaviour of the rich and powerful.

I am hoping that China cleans up its act soon. They have been taking tremendous strides towards developing green industries, but so far have not made a committment to reduce pollution.

[incontempt]

Offer finance to homeowners to install their own energy systems....security and stability, i would rather make a 150$ a month payment to my own energy system then to pay a utility.....breakdown is 77$ for the electricity and 73$ for delivery...i agree it is absurd when the goverment should just use old military bases and workers to make solar panels for home installations.

Energy crisis over!

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

I have a friend whose rooftop solar panels pay for 100% of his utilities costs (electrical). He actually has a surplus that he sells back to the city. He lives in LA, close to Hollyweird, and yes he's rich and could afford to cover his entire rooftop with solar panels but STILL: He is proof that solar can work.

Some of the snots here posturing about how "solar and wind won't work" are swinging at strawmen. Of course the math doesn't check out for-profit wind and solar generating farms, but ENERGY INDEPENDENCE is about more than not needing oil producing countries; it's about not not to be hooked up to the "Matrix" at ALL.

What to see a corporatist panic? STOP NEEDING HIM.

[speakeasy]

I agree, I wish that the talking heads on TV would stop spending time on return on investment (for alternative energy) and more time on how its the right thing to do. I can't wait for the day I install my geo-thermal heating and cooling system (hopefullly powered by the sun). I'm hoping that the green movement will start a different marketing strategy to sell mainstream America on the easy changes you can make now, instead of the dire reports that make people stick their heads in the sand.

Another problem is all of these kooky home owners associations, who will not allow solar or wind power because it doens't fit their charter or their opinion. In my area they take you to court if you do not use their choice of siding, gutters, shed, etc...

[maddie0001]

from the original article

The United States still has a vast lead in carbon dioxide emissions per person. The average American is responsible for 19.4 tons. Average emissions per person in Russia are 11.8 tons; in the European Union, 8.6 tons; China, 5.1 tons; and India, 1.8 tons.

But somehow this is all China and India's fault?

[sculptor]

That may be the case but China has 4.4 time the population and 5.2 time the rate of economic growth. Combine that with minimal and ineffective regulation of pollution and its obvious that the real problem is and will continue to be China.

[maddie0001]

When the average American's carbon emissions are down from 19.4 tons to China's 5.1 then we can complain. Otherwise it looks like they're just following our example.

Also, minimal and ineffective regulation is not restricted to China. You can find some of that closer to home.

[HopeandChange]

You're right, everything in the world that is wrong is because of America. We should all be like China.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

Hyperbolic Strawman alert!

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

Am I the only one cynically musing on the race factor? Take note that so-called “Global Warming” and the unrestrained gobbling of the world’s natural resources was just OKIDOKE so long Whitey was the only one doing it. Once non-whites (China, India, South America, etc.) developed booming economies and started claiming energy for themselves, including driving cars and eating meat and polluting the environment, all of a sudden Whitey had a “problem.”

APOCOLYPSE COW! Darn straight Whitey has a problem: Competition for resources at a time when Whitey's driven his own economy into the ground and is in a poor position to compete. The Western World, aka the New Rome, is in decline and headed to the dustheap of history.

Consequently the world can expect a never-ending series of news articles and think tank papers proposing “solutions” that at their core are really about maintaining, or restoring, Whitey’s ascendancy on the world stage. The whole ethanol fiasco, diverting food from the poor darker-skinned folk so Whitey can drive his car is but one grievous example. The corn subsidies look more like a deliberate attempt toward a race-based genocide than an attempt to help the environment. Surely our Corporatist Overlords knew exactly what they were doing when they thought up THAT little gem and sold it to our stupid puppets in Congress.

PS: I'm Whitey

[noneIn2008]

You are not to explicitly discuss the Malthusian goals. It was just to be understood that the goal was to reduce the population to 2 billion Europeans. The developing countries are not to develop.

[willfarnaby]

In the case of the USA, the corn subsidies, are essentially just that (for political considerations).

As for meat production, and all manner of other known destructive practices, we're all essentially the same collection of idiots, worldwide.

Whitey, of course, has set just about the most miserable example possible.

[mergina]

This is in part why the are currently buying up property in America. Oh it is not large land grabs like the Chrysler Building in NYC, but rather homes and empty lots to build on. They are doing it by financing the ever increasing number of immigrants from their country. What good is all the money in the world if you cannot breath?

[hypnotoad72]

Can't they put laws into their own countries so they and everyone else can breathe?

* They, us, the whole planet. If Al Gore claims it's an emergency and everybody needs to be involved, then why isn't he flying over there to peddle his book instead of flying over to collect awards, heat up his houses, continue to be on the board of directors on a company whose "Green" record is abysmal... Everybody has their own part to play if environmentalism is to be taken seriously.

[willfarnaby]

Al Gore is playing an infinitely more positive role than Eco- (ah, hell, drop the prefix...) Terrorist BushCheney.