[Rhodes22-list] Politics/Pollution/Global Warming

[Brad Haslett]

Been to China lately?  Duh!  Brad

     Report: China Will Pass U.S. As Polluter
<http://www.breitbart.com/partner.php?source=ap>   Apr 24 01:41 AM
US/Eastern
   SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China will pass the United States as the world's
biggest source of greenhouse gasses this year, an official with the
International Energy Agency was quoted as saying.

China had been forecast to surpass the U.S. in 2010, but its sizzling
economic growth has pushed the date forward, the IEA's chief economist,
Fatih Birol, was quoted as saying in an interview appearing in Tuesday's
Wall Street Journal newspaper.

"In the past couple of months, economic growth and related coal consumption
has grown at such an unexpected rate," Birol was quoted as saying. China's
rising emissions will effectively cancel out attempts by other countries to
reduce their own, he said.

Those comments follow the weekend release of a Chinese government report
detailing the costs of climate change but asserting that the country should
focus on development before cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Higher than average temperatures meant spreading deserts, worsening
droughts, shrinking glaciers and increased spread of diseases, said the
report, compiled by more than a dozen government bodies. It said emission
limits were unfair and would constrain China's current energy and
manufacturing industries.

China is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gasses,
but is exempt from its restrictions because it is a developing country.

The Paris-based IEA advises developed country on energy policy.