In a recent study of overcast versus cloud-free days in China, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that the amount of sunlight reaching the ground at 500 measurement stations in China fell dramatically between 1954 and 2001.
Next month, all eyes should be on Indonesia, as the parliament decides on
a key element of the peace agreement between the Indonesian government and
the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM). One year after the powerful Indian
Ocean tsunami devastated Aceh—making peace in the province attainable
after 29 years of conflict—a lasting solution seems within grasp.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is financing a US $2 billion environmental improvement project in the Songhua River area of northeastern China, according to an ADB official in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province.
Chinese scientists believe that breeding new drought-tolerant crop varieties is key to easing the country's chronic water scarcity, according to Xinhua News Agency.
In early January, China called for a nationwide repeal of restrictions on smaller, more economical cars by the end of March in a move to ease the country's growing dependence on imported oil.
Washington, D.C.—Conflict and “un-natural” disasters
have taken a heavy toll in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, yet new
analysis from the
Worldwatch Institute shows important lessons can be learned from the countries’ differing
responses to these difficult circumstances.
The Chinese electric utility Huaneng and the Spanish National Power Corporation Endesa have unveiled a pioneering initiative for purchasing emissions credits generated under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), according to the 21st Century Business Herald.
These slides offer a glimpse of the rising ecological impact of two populous developing nations, China and India, while illustrating that the per-capita resource consumption and pollution of countries in the industrialized world—including the United States, the European Union and Japan—is much higher. If by 2030, China and India alone were to achieve a per-capita footprint equivalent to that of Japan today, together they would require a full planet earth to meet their needs.
As this tumultuous year of toxic spills, violent protests, and mining disasters winds down, some Chinese environmentalists are heaving a sigh of relief in anticipation of better days ahead in the Year of the Dog, which begins on January 29.
