Pollution: A Different Kind of Boom in China
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The data is in. China's first national survey of pollution levels shows the steep cost the country has paid for its economic development, reports Mongabay.com. The survey mapped roughly six million sources of pollutants--an important step forward in terms of controlling pollution, but also indicative of the Everest-sized mountain China has to climb. Now the world's top producer of greenhouse gases, China emitted into the air, in 2007, nearly 18 million tons of nitrogen oxide and 11 million tons of soot, among other pollutants.
Not to mention the toxic waste that has seeped into the country's water systems:
[I]n 2007 alone the nation dumped 30.3 million metric tons of pollutants into its water. Doubling official government figures, these measurements included for the first time chemical wastes from agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, which many environmentalists say farmers in China systematically overuse.
But China--oh, so cagey during the Copenhagen talks--is now exploring ways to curb their emissions and move towards becoming a greener nation.
Reports the Associated Press:
The central government now has a year to use the census results to shape its next five-year environmental protection plan. Ministries are also studying the possibility of an environmental tax, China's vice minister of environmental protection, Zhang Lijun, told a news conference.
