The downfall of the Dragon?

Okay, it may not be that drastic... but China's disregard for the environmental impact of its economic expansion may end up biting them in the butt.

Acid rain affects large swathes of China; report

Discharge of sulphur dioxide in booming China rose by 27 percent between 2000 and 2005 to 25 million tonnes, making the country the world's top emitter of the pollutant.

Sheng told lawmakers that China's sulphur dioxide emissions, caused largely by coal-burning power stations and coking plants, were double the acceptable environmental limit.

According to the report's findings, nearly 650 out of 680 coking plants in Shanxi, the country's main coal-mining province, discharged excessive sulphur dioxide, Xinhua said.

Air pollution, caused mainly by sulphur dioxide and particulate matter, was affecting some 40 percent of Chinese cities, Sheng said.

I wonder; did China sign the Kyoto Treaty? Is anyone picketing outside Hu Jintao's house? Somehow I doubt it.

UPDATE: China doesn't have to abide by the Kyoto Treaty. It's a developing country.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The World Bank put together on Tuesday the largest greenhouse gas deal ever, where European and Asian companies and others will pay two Chinese chemical companies $1.02 billion to reduce output of gases believed to cause global warming.

In the deal, European and Asian companies bound by the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol to tackle climate change, will pay the Chinese chemical companies to reduce and destroy emissions of HFC23, a heat-trapping gas 11,700 times stronger than carbon dioxide.

The deal will reduce emissions by about 19 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, according to the World Bank.

About 75 percent of the money to purchase the reductions came from private capital, it said.

Additional participants included entities in World Bank managed funds including the Danish Carbon Fund, the Italian Carbon Fund, Deutsche Bank, Mitsui & Co and two entities of Natsource LLC, which calls itself the world's largest greenhouse gas asset manager.

As a developing country, China, the world's No. 2 producer of greenhouse gases, is not required to reduce emissions of heat trapping gases in the first phase of the international global warming pact the Kyoto Protocol, which runs from 2008 to 2012.

Tuesday's deal was done under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows rich countries to meet some of their greenhouse gas reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by investing in reductions in developing countries.

Holy smokes... [pun intended]... I'm glad we didn't sign onto Kyoto. It would obligate us to fork over scads of our hard-earned tax dollars to pay off Chinese factory owners. Sheesh.