China Warns Of Five-Fold Increase In Air Pollution In 15 Years

TerraDaily ^ | 10/24/2005 | AFP

[cogitator]

China's rapid economic growth and industrialization is posing a major challenge to the environment with air pollution likely to rise five-fold in 15 years, officials warned Monday.

"In the future 15 years, the population of China will reach 1.46 billion and the GDP will double, the pollution load will increase by four to five times according to the present resource consumption rate and pollution control level," said Zhang Lijun, vice minister of China's environmental agency SEPA.

Zhang was speaking at an air pollution conference organized by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the US Environmental Protection Agency, the environmental directorate of the European Commission and the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory.

China's GDP growth of more than nine percent is causing more pollutants to be emitted, as more coal is burned for energy and more polluting factories are built, experts at the conference said.

A list of the world's most polluted cities includes several in China. Thirty percent of China is polluted by acid rain, Zhang said in a speech, while one fifth of the population is living in areas seriously polluted, including by dust, acid rain, smog and fine particles.

"The major challenge in China is that they have a fast growing economy, a lot of construction of power plants and use of energy," said Matti Vainio, deputy head of the European Commission's clean air and transport unit.

"Because of this, the emissions, potential emissions are huge," he said.

"In just five years, the emissions of one type of pollutant, sulfur dioxide, rose from about 20 million tons a year in 2000 to the current 26 million tons." Worsening air in China, especially in major cities, is leading to "more and more serious" health problems, including respiratory and lung illnesses, Zhang said.

"It's very important to get those numbers down," Vainio said.

"So the challenge is basically how to manage this prosperous economic growth, and at the same time reduce the environmental impact of the growth," he said.

China has already taken steps to reduce this future impact with a plan for economic growth between 2006-2010 placing a strong emphasis on minimal harm to the environment, a SEPA official said.

"There will be significant changes because of the five-year plan," Li Xinmin, deputy director-general of SEPA's pollution control department told AFP adding that the country could not continue down the path of "polluting first and cleaning up later". Chinese officials said China was toughening laws and adopting measures to reduce factory and vehicle pollution while SEPA planned to publish a list of cities that did not meet national air quality standards.

[cogitator]

If the air in China is bad, the water's worse (especially in eastern China).

[Semper Paratus]

If doesn't kill Kyoto nothing will.

[RetiredArmy]

This is, of course, Bush's fault for letting the Chinese get away with this and for not signing the Tojo-Kojo treaty.

[in hoc signo vinces]

Yet they still have all those credits under the Kyoto accord to sell to Canada...hahahahahahha...IRONY hits the commies to the North all the time.

[Sthitch]

And the EU Leninist have the gal to blame everything on the United States not signing that useless, meaningless, economy killing Kyoto, while ignoring China's real pollution problems.

[cogitator]

ping

[Fido969]

Greenpeace and the rest of the tree huggers are headed over right away, aren't they?

[stylin19a]

kewl...China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.

[Publius6961]

China Warns Of Five-Fold Increase In Air Pollution In 15 Years

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

What was that amount that Ireland "owes" somebody for signing on to the Kyoto Protocol? How many hundreds of Million Euros? It was reported in the last couple of weeks...
Why would any productive, technologically advanced nation sign on to such a ridiculous concept?

Can someone explain it to me again? I understand no part of it!

[Publius6961]

If doesn't kill Kyoto nothing will.

Why should it affect Kyoto at all? China is not a signatory.

[Blood of Tyrants]

That's okay because China is exempt from complying with Kyoto.

[MediaMole]

Emission control technology for coal-fired plants has existed for 30+ years. China needs to spend some money and start cleaning up their own mess.

[lormand]

The Ops people where I work go to southern china often and tell me that the pollution there is worse than anything they have ever seen.

[GSlob]

Doubling the GDP in 15 years means slowing the average growth rate to something like 4.7%. Because now it is significantly higher [with all the corrections for commie statistics], it would mean that towards the end of the period, around 2015-2020 it would have to be much lower than that average, maybe around 1.5-2%.

[Publius6961]

There was either a thread, or a lengthy post within a thread sometime this year tracing the evolution of what became the Kyoto protocol. Does anyone remember it? I thought I had saved it, but can't find it.

It traced the origins to a specific charlatan who has been around forever, mostly enriching himself behind the scenes by manufacturing crises of all sorts, usually environmentally based. A sort of stealth environmental Ralph Nader on steroids...

I would love to find that description for future reference.

[N3WBI3]

They did sign it, but they are exempt as a 'developing' nation..

[loreldan]

Leftists just don't get it. Technological progress does not cause pollution. Modern methods are more environmentally sound than older methods. As more progress is made, more environmentally-friendly products will be developed as the economy allows it. This is assuming, of course, that the government gives freedom to private enterprises to compete.

[Publius6961]

I stand corrected.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"They did sign it, but they are exempt as a 'developing' nation.."

Maybe we declare New Orleans a developing nation and build more oil rigs and refineries.

[cynicom]

Whats a little second hand smoke between friends. We are friends aren't we???