CHINA: ENVIRONMENTAL KEYSTONE

China, which is home to a quarter of all mankind, is now the world's largest emitter of CO2. Its recent elevation to "Climate Change Superpower", has added new urgency to the worldwide battle to contain greenhouse gas emissions. Any agreement among the other countries of the world for Climate Change is doomed to fail without China's active involvement.

China now has the dubious distinction of having 16 out of 20 of the world's most polluted cities. From the mid 1970's, she embarked upon what can only be described as industrialization at "warp speed," becoming the world’s workshop. Needless to say, this economic growth has come at an enormous price. With her headlong rush into industrialization and a voracious appetite for energy and other resources, China is facing enormous environmental and energy challenges. The air in many of her cities is virtually unbreathable, lakes are polluted to the point where aquatic life cannot survive and water-tables are severely diminished and polluted. As is now demonstrably clear, pollution recognizes no boundaries. The effects of desertification in China are now being felt even in the United States, as yellow dust, combined with various pollutants, is transported by the Jet Stream and re-deposited in far-away California. The wheel has come full-circle - local environmental degradation is now truly a global problem.