China Takes Greenhouse Gas Lead

China has surpassed the United States as the world's top greenhouse polluter, say Dutch scientists. And what else do the United States and China have in common?

Reports the* Los Angeles Times*,

Neither the United States nor China have ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions. And as recently as this month's Group of 8 summit of leading industrialized nations in Germany, President Bush cited China as a reason for his continuing opposition to mandatory measures, which critics say impose specific standards on the most economically advanced nations but not on the developing world.

"We all can make major strides, and yet there won't be a reduction until China and India are participants," Bush told reporters at the G-8
conference. He supports non-mandatory goals.

Bush has a point. But are China and India going to join if the United
States doesn't? Bush could have seized the higher ground, but didn't.

And this isn't just about Kyoto, either. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if climate change policies had been a condition of China and
India's acceptance into the World Trade Organization? But that was never on the table, either.

Oy. Better hope they start building a whole lot of straw bale houses.

China may lead in greenhouse gases [Los Angeles Times]
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Image: Sam Haldane*