China's Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Hit 25.5 Million Tons In 2005 - P.D.

[hatrack]

China discharged 25.49 million tons of sulfur dioxide in 2005, atop the world's list, said the country's national environmental watchdog Thursday at a news conference.

The amount is 27 percent over that in 2000, said the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), noting that 21.684 million tons came from industrial discharge and 3.89 million tons from living discharge.

Each ton of the discharge may cause 20,000 yuan (about 2,500 U.S. dollars) of economic losses, said Li Xinmin, deputy director of SEPA's air pollution department. Calculating on that basis, China may have suffered a total loss of 509.8 billion yuan (63.625 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005.

Li said China's coal consumption increased more than 800 million tons in the 2001-2005 period, among which 500 million were wolfed by the power industry. "Coal accounts for 70 percent of China's energy consumption. This fact is hard to change in a short term," he said.

EDIT

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200608/03/eng20060803_289629.html

[The Sushi Bandit]

1. I have but 3 words "STOP BUYING CHINESE"

nuff said..

[pooja]

2. its so hard to find something that isn't made in China these days

or any of the other 3rd world sweat shops

[NNadir]

3. Well this isn't straight forward.

Some people speculate that the reason we haven't seen global warmings full impact is the changes in albedo attributable to sulfate particles.

This thread gives the general idea: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x62426

Because of the acidity and toxicity of sulfuric acid, the general wisdom has been to scrub sulfates from smoke stacks in new power plants.

But there is a law of unintended consequences.