This article not only describes how China’s increasing pollution is now reaching the US (which at times now accounts for 25% of Los Angeles’s pollution), but also summarizes the severity of China’s environmental problems. Excerpts:
- 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China.
- China suffers 400,000 premature deaths each year due to pollution.
- China builds on average one new coal power plant every week.
- Car ownership in China is soaring 10% a year.
- China will exceed the US as the world’s largest emitter of global warming gases in the next decade.
- Chinese officials estimate overall pollution will quadruple in the next 15 years.
Faced with numbers like these, it is difficult not to be pessimistic about the inevitability of global warming and extreme environmental destruction. At least China is aggressively pursuing cutting energy use and increasing energy efficiency, but it will likely not be enough.
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