From the Los Angeles Times:
For two decades, China has made economic growth a priority. The results have been impressive as the country becomes a bigger player on the global stage and hundreds of millions of its people are lifted out of extreme poverty.
But the cost has been high. China is home to 20 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, the World Bank concluded in a report last week. Officials here have acknowledged that 410,000 deaths a year are caused by pollution. And China is projected to surpass the United States and become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases by 2009.
The U.N. report released Friday, which warned of the catastrophic results of global warming, served as a pointed indictment of the world’s biggest producers of pollution. [Full Text]
– Read the Summary for Policy Makers of the UN Climate Change report here. See also “U.S., China Got Climate Warnings Toned Down.”