China climate negotiator laments 'severe' pollution

Google – AFP, 5 November 2013

A man wears a mask to protect himself from heavy smog in Harbin, northeast

China's Heilongjiang province, on October 21, 2013 (AFP/File)

Beijing — China's top negotiator at international climate talks said on Tuesday that air pollution in his own country -- the world's biggest carbon emitter -- is harming its citizens.

"China indeed is suffering from severe air pollution," said Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning body.

Smoggy conditions have "now become the norm which has severely affected the mental and physical health of the Chinese people", he added -- but he voiced hope for improvement in the next decade.

Xie, speaking to reporters before global climate talks in Poland next week, attributed China's air problems to the country's "obsolete development model", its "unreasonable industrial and energy structure" and discharge of pollutants by some companies "in a very extensive way".

Heavy smog shrouds Beijing, on June 5,

2013, with much believed to be due to coal

consumption (AFP/File)

The root cause, he added, is the "use of fossil fuels".

Pollution is becoming a major source of public anger in China, and authorities vowed in September to reduce levels of atmospheric pollutants in Beijing and other major cities by as much as 25 percent by 2017 to try to improve their dire air quality.

The government said pollution levels would be cut by slowing the growth of coal consumption so that its share of China's energy sources fell to 65 percent by 2017.

China is the world's biggest coal consumer, and is forecast to account for more than half of global demand next year.

Xie said that "in about five to 10 years we will see improvements in our air quality".

Chinese cities have been hit by intense air pollution in recent years, much of it caused by emissions from coal-burning power stations. Levels of tiny particles known as PM2.5 have reached as high as 40 times World Health Organization limits this year.

Pollution, which tends to worsen as winter approaches, is also blamed on rapid urbanisation, dramatic economic development and climatic factors.

The bad air has tarnished the image of Chinese cities including Beijing, which saw an almost 15 percent drop in tourist visits during the first half of this year.

The Beijing municipal government is from next year to cut quotas for new car licenses to 150,000 per year from the current 240,000 now, according to its website.

Air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths and 25 million healthy years of life lost in China in 2010, the US-based Health Effects Institute said in March.

Chinese reports said Tuesday that the country had recorded its youngest-ever lung cancer victim, an eight-year-old girl, with doctors blaming her condition on pollution.

The populous northeastern city of Harbin was shrouded in thick smog for several days late last month, with schools and a regional airport shut and poor visibility forcing some ground transport to a halt.

Xie stressed that China remains a "developing country", saying it has only recently reached a per capita GDP of $6,000 and still has about 90 million people living below the poverty line.

The upcoming ministerial-level Warsaw Climate Change Conference comes ahead of a 2015 deadline for signing a United Nations deal that would enter into force in 2020, binding for the first time all the world's nations to measurable targets for curbing the greenhouse gas emissions widely blamed for global warming.

"The Chinese delegation is open to the new agreement and we do hope the new agreement can also help the international community to tackle climate change," Xie said.

But he cited statistics to show that from the Industrial Revolution to 2010, emissions from developed countries accounted for 70 percent of the global total.

Rich countries should fulfil their financial pledges -- such as providing $30 billion by 2013 and $100 billion a year by 2020 -- to help the developing world address climate change, he said.

"We know that developed countries now indeed face some financial difficulties, but despite that they still need to make good on the promises they have made and deliver their obligations," he said.

"That is the foundation for building political mutual trust between us."

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"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  What if... just what if... you also became wiser as well? What if you started to control that which is your population and the use of the earth's resources in a better way. What if you stopped using up the resources of earth and depended instead upon the ocean for power as we told you how to do? What if you decided to dig a hole and make steam out of the heat that's below your feet, instead of building a nuclear reactor? What if you finally realized that nuclear reactors are the world's most expensive and dangerous steam engines! There are lots of ways of making steam that will not hurt one animal, or molecule of air, and the process lays there ready for your discovery. What if you became benevolent and responsible, and GAIA  supported the balance of your numbers? What a concept! ..."

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to selfcorrect? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”