Posted on 06/11/2006 11:09:19 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
One of China's lesser-known exports is a dangerous brew of soot, toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases from the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants.
In early April, a dense cloud of pollutants over Northern China sailed to nearby Seoul, sweeping along dust and desert sand before wafting across the Pacific.
The increase in global-warming gases from China's coal use will probably exceed that for all industrialized countries combined over the next 25 years, surpassing by five times the reduction in such emissions that the Kyoto Protocol seeks.
Already, China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. And it has increased coal consumption 14 percent in each of the past two years in the broadest industrialization ever. Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego.
To make a big improvement in emissions of global-warming gases and other pollutants, the country must install the most modern equipment...
... Chinese utilities have in the past preferred to buy cheap but often-antiquated equipment from well connected domestic suppliers instead of importing costlier gear from the West.
The Chinese government has been reluctant to approve the extra spending. Asking customers to shoulder the bill would set back the government's efforts to protect consumers from inflation and to create jobs and social stability.
But each year China defers buying advanced technology, older equipment goes into scores of new coal-fired plants with a lifespan of up to 75 years.
... China released 22.5 million tons of sulfur in 2004, more than twice the amount released in the United States, and a Chinese regulator estimated last autumn that emissions would reach 26 million tons for 2005. Acid rain now falls on 30 percent of China.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that they are dirt poor and there's like 2 billion of them
thats why kyoto is really a joke
fyi, WE'RE NUMBER ONE--in production of goods and services. Ya think there might be a correlation there? Nah. prob'ly not. To you anyway.
I've seen the enhanced satellite photos show the pollution cloud reach Norway. As to it's effects on the US, it's partially denuding the forests in Oregon/Washington/NoCal/BC and one study suggests it's killing the fisheries off the BC coast.
fyi, WE'RE NUMBER ONE--in production of goods and services. Ya think there might be a correlation there? Nah. prob'ly not. To you anyway.
Another way to put that is: "If the rest of the World attempts to live the way we do in the US, the concentration of atmospheric CO2 is going to be a lot higher, and increase a lot faster, than today."
Apples and oranges: the coal is used mostly to spin generators, the oil mostly to fuel vehicles.
If global warming destroys the Earth, it's Bruce Springsteen's fault.
Oh yeah, Jane Fonda's too.
The Chinese aren't paying $70/bbl for oil
Do you believe that they are not paying $70/bbl, they are not buying the reported quantities, or both?
In either case, what's your source?
& we're being lied to
By whom, and how... the world oil market is pretty transparent at both the production and distribution levels.
The U.S. can't afford $70/bbl oil - how can backwater China ?
China has "investments" in many countries which maybe bartered for oil &/or it's entirely possible that China purchased futures a while back.
Your logic is pathetic. America and Europe polluted because it was expedient, but also because it was unknown to the world then the exact impact pollution would have on the world's ecosystem. The west learned through adversity the effects of uncontrolled pollution. China doesn't have that excuse. What happened 100-150 years ago involved new technologies that no one had any experience with. Yet you would excuse China, who has the benefit of American and European experience, from controlling known consequences of pollution solely for expediency's sake. China knows exactly what excessive pollution can do because of America's and Europe's past problems dealing with it.
Your hatred for America and the west is disgusting. If you find China so appealing, move there, and don't let the screen door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha. Buhbye!
overall, this might amount to a few dollars per barrel over their entire consumption, otherwise, they appear to be paying about what everyone else does.
The U.S. can't afford $70/bbl oil - how can backwater China ?
Chinese energy imports were around 50 billion last year. Do you suppose their 202 billion dollar trade surplus with the US might have helped finance them?
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