China Has Already Overtaken U.S. as Number One Polluter Says New Research
[This is a guest post by Meg Hamill who works at an environmental non-profit called LandPaths in partnership with the Sonoma County Open Space District.]
The team from the University of California that will publish the report, gathered their provincial-level data from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency. The team readily admits that it isn’t possible to be exactly sure of the date when Chinese emissions surpassed U.S. emissions, as they are basing their study from 2004 data. Regardless, the team believes that projected greenhouse gas emissions in a future China have been radically underestimated. If the report is widely accepted and agreed upon, then this new data must be factored into any global climate change plan in which the Chinese play a part.
The research team offers that unless China makes drastic moves to cut their emissions, the increases in greenhouses gases in the nation will be much more significant than the simultaneous cuts being made by wealthy nations under the Kyoto Protocol.
While the Chinese Embassy in the UK has yet to comment on the report, Dr. Max Auffhammer, who led the research project, said that the team had already presented the information to a wide range of people, and no one has yet taken issue with the data.
Indeed even China will admit that when it comes to climate change, there is reason to be concerned about their own emissions. But still, China, and other developing nations stand firm that any cuts in greenhouse gases shouldn’t be concrete, but rather fluctuate with projected growth analysis.
Of course, this new data doesn’t really tell the whole story. Interestingly, the U.S. still maintains per capita emissions that are five-six times higher than China.
See Also: Most Chinese Say Pollution is a Big Problem and Should be Made a Top Priority
Photo from FreeFoto under a Creative Commons License
sadly yet another pointless China bashing report. China has a larger population and lower per capita emission as the report submits at the end. needless to say that China is still a developing country, where as the US is not. Comparison of total emissions is pointless, a comparison of all the US emissions since Kyoto was signed by other developed countries would less sexy I am sure.
[...] month, claims that China has already overtaken the United States as the world’s “biggest pollread more | digg [...]
CHINA ALWAYS HAD FIRST PLACE AS THE NUMBER ONE POLLUTER FOR THEIR PEOPLE AND LOWER ENVIRONMENT. ALL OTHER COUNTRIES DONT COME CLOSE TO CHINA. AS FOR ALL OTHER COUNTRIES THEY SEEM TO BE OK. AS FOR THE OZONE ALL NON-SOLIDS DECIPATE BELOW 500 FEET INCLUDING CHINA, THIS IS NATURES WAY OF KEEPING THE PLANET CLEAN FOR GROWTH.
AND THANKS TO ALOT OF NATIONS PEOPLE’S THAT ARE CONCERNED ABOUT FINDING THE CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING BY SEARCHING WITH UNMANNED DRONES AND GROUND SEARCH TEAMS, WE HAVE INTERUPTED THE BEAMS THAT ARE USED IN WEAKENING THE OZONE LAYER. HOW DO WE KNOW, BECAUSE THE GLACIERS STOPPED MELTING AND STARTED RE-FREEZING. SO I ADVISED THE CONCERNED NATIONS TO RETRACE EACH CO-ORDINANCE FROM AUG 11-08 TO SEPTEMBER-08, SO WE CAN FIND THE OPENINGS IN THE EARTH’S SURFACE FROM 35 MILES TO THE SHORE LINE. IT SEEMS THE LEADER OF BRAZIL REFUSES TO ALLOW A SEARCH TO FIND AND HELP IN DELETING GLOBAL WARMING. CONGRADULATIONS ALL FREE CONCERNED PEOPLE ON EARTH. HAVE A NICE DAY. MIKE
[...] to club these two countries with the rest of the developing world. Here’s why. Both India and China are some of the biggest polluters in the world; there economies are not in recession as the western [...]