China Claims That Amounts Of Pollutants Will Fall Starting This Year - AFP

[hatrack]

Whatever.

The amount of pollution being pumped into China's environment will finally begin to fall this year, the nation's environment ministry said Tuesday, after a similar goal was missed in 2006. "We should see a turning point... this year," Zhang Lijun, the vice minister of the State Environment Protection Administration, told reporters in a briefing to mark World Environment Day.
"This will be the first time in many years that we will see a drop in the overall volume in emissions of major pollutants."

China set targets of reducing emissions of sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen, two of the main contributors to its status as one of the world's most polluted nations, by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010. But last year discharges instead increased by 1.8 percent and 1.2 percent respectively over the previous year.

Sulphur dioxide is a product of burning fossil fuels and is the main cause of acid rain, while chemical oxygen demand measures chemicals like nitrogen and phosphorus that choke rivers and lakes by stripping the water of oxygen.

Although the reduction targets were missed last year, the trend was promising as emissions at least began to slow, and the five-year target could still be achieved, according to Zhang.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/China_Says_Pollution_Woes_To_Ease_This_Year_999.html

[krispos42]

1. Falling on who?

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Thanks for the water I spit on my keyboard.

:rofl: