No! Chinese Environment Continuing To Deteriorate, Officials Say - PRC May Miss Energy Goals - AFP

[hatrack]

China's environment is "still deteriorating", a senior official said Wednesday, as the booming nation burnt record amounts of coal and lagged behind in meeting its energy-saving goals. Following 30 years of explosive growth, China's is on track to overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy, but that success has made it one of the most polluted nations in the world.

"Our environmental quality is only improving in certain areas, but overall the environment is still deteriorating," Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun told journalists.

Coal burning is a major culprit, providing the nation with up to 70 percent of its energy needs, but city waste and run-off from agriculture is also severely fouling the nation's water supply.

Zhang said although China was fulfilling its 2006-2010 goals of cutting sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand -- major causes of air and water pollution, respectively -- emissions of other pollutants were rising. Efforts to remove sulphur from coal resulted in less sulphur dioxide pollution in China last year, he said, despite the nation burning over three billion tonnes of the fossil fuel in 2010, an annual record.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/afp/100310125335.fh5ettkc.html

[DonCoquixote]

1. China may be a Billion strong

But they are going to find out the lesson America learned, that the corporations will have NO problem discarding your shell after they have eaten out your guts.