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CHINA FACTS

  1. Coal burning in China emits 25 percent of global mercury and 12 percent of global CO2.
  2. Coal provides about 70 percent of China's energy needs: the country consumed some 2.4 billion tons in 2007 -- more than the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined.
  3. Climate experts link greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation to the rising incidences of natural disasters witnessed between January and September of 2008, which forced the evacuation and relocation of 13.2 million people and killed more than 2,300, causing direct economic losses of $24 billion. 
  4. A 2008, even China’s own SEPA ( State Environmental Protection Agency) survey found that 41% of fish species in water bodies in eastern Jiangsu Province, where there is a high concentration of manufacturers, contained various heavy metals transmitted through polluted air fall-out. 
  5. SEPA estimates that nearly 200 cities in China fall short of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION standards for airborne particulates.
  6. Exacerbating the coal and car emission pollutants are large plumes of dust the size of small countries blowing eastward from the encroaching deserts of Mongolia and Western China. Desertification in China is advancing at an annual rate of 1,300 square miles, destroying farmlands and driving more rural migrants into cities. The expanding deserts are increasing the severity of the spring sandstorms—100 are expected by end of 2009, a significant increase over the 23 in the previous decade.
  7. Acid rain resulting from coal and fossil fuel combustion has been damaging nearly one-third of China’s limited cropland.
  8. The Korean Peninsula and Japan have felt the brunt of China’s “export” through acid rain, mercury, and other airborne contaminants as Siberian winds and dust storms flush out China’s pollution every spring, severely damaging forests and watersheds. 
  9. More recently, studies have examined the problems associated with black carbon (BC) soot in China. BC—the active ingredient in haze produced by burning crop residues, household coal stoves, and vehicles—is potentially the second most potent global warming gas after CO2.
  10. China is the largest BC emitting country in the world, responsible for 17 percent of these emissions. The BC particles are less than one micron in diameter and cause hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from respiratory illnesses each year in China. Moreover, BC blocks sunlight and may be lowering crop yields for both wheat and rice in China by 30 percent. Regionally, scientists consider China’s BC emissions as responsible for some of the warming and destabilizing weather throughout the Pacific Rim.
  11. Particulate levels in Beijing are as much as 6 times that of New York City.
  12. The byproducts of China’s development are airborne and are now being felt as far as the east coast of the United States.  High levels of mercury deposition in the United States from China and India had been detected on both coasts of the United States. Research conducted in Oregon has shown that one-fifth of the mercury entering the Williamette River in Oregon comes from abroad, mostly from China
  13. Mercury is especially suited for long distance travel because at the smokestack in China it is in elemental form and insoluble. However, by the time it reaches the U.S. west coast, it has transformed into a reactive gaseous material that dissolves in Oregon’s wet climate—falling onto the Williamette River’s watershed and slowly building up toxic levels of mercury in the local wildlife.
  14. Research by the UN now indicates that some 53 percent of the world’s natural and human caused mercury emissions come from Asia.
  15. The most commonly cited numbers attribute between 25 and 40 percent of global mercury emissions (from coal burning) to China. Within China’s borders, air pollution is responsible for 75 million asthma attacks annually.
  16. China’s cement kilns, which account for around 40 percent of global cement production, are a major source of dioxin and furan—pollutants that can be transported airborne across long distances.
  17. First World countries around the globe, countries like America, England and France have exported their own environmental problems to China by asking that country to manufacture there, what we will not manufacture on our own shores.
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    Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 11:41.