I've always associated China with a few things: their massive number of people, their innovations, and their pollution. Pictures of China often look like they were taken on a cloudy and foggy day, when in actuality that haze is smog and pollution. I recently read an article talking about China's new efforts to reduce pollution. They announced the details of their first carbon trading program, which is set to begin next month. Seven cities and provinces will take part in this program, with China expecting to completely implement the program by 2014.
This carbon cap is a necessity for China, as their carbon consumption is causing more and more negative effects to their population, along with the obvious toll on the environment. Beijing schools are starting to build air purified domes over playgrounds so children can safely play outside, and many expatriates are leaving the country all together. Recently Beijing has also broken records- and not in a good way. Their pollution levels just topped 775, which breaks the Environmental Protection Agency's air quality scale of 0-500. China itself uses 47% of the worlds coal, with their consumption levels continuing to grow.
Overall this cap is crucial for the well being of China and its citizens, not to mention the environment. Though they've committed to making environmental changes before and haven't followed through, this idea is hopefully going to become the driving force in a climate transformation.
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