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From: Gir
Acid rain caused by air pollution now affects 1/3 of China's land. Of the world's 20 most polluted cities, 16 are in China. Half of China's population—600 to 700 million people—drinks water contaminated with human and animal waste. A billion tons of untreated sewage is dumped into the Yangtze each year. 4/5 of China's rivers are too polluted to support fish. The Mi Yun reservoir, Beijing's last remaining reliable source of drinking water, has dropped more than 50 feet since 1993. In 2001, a huge Chinese storm dumped 50,000 metric tons of dust on the United States. That's 2.5 times as much as what U.S. sources produce in a typical day. Currently, up to 36 percent of man-made mercury emissions settling on America originated in Asia. Particulate matter from Asia accounts for nearly half of California's annual pollution limit.
From: Gir
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A related article: www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/world/asia/08trucks.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin> Trucks Power China’s Economy, at a Suffocating Cost
“By KEITH BRADSHER
“GUANGZHOU, China — Every night, columns of hulking blue and red freight trucks invade China’s major cities with a reverberating roar of engines and dark clouds of diesel exhaust so thick it dims headlights.
“By daybreak in this sprawling metropolis in southeastern China, residents near thoroughfares who leave their windows open overnight find their faces stiff with a dark layer of diesel soot.
“After Mary Leung opens her tiny open-air shop along a major road soon after dawn, she must wipe the soot off her countertops and tables; the tiny yellow-and-olive bird that has kept her company is harder to clean.
“Trucks are the mules of this country’s spectacularly expanding economy — ubiquitous and essential, yet highly noxious.
“Trucks here burn diesel fuel contaminated with more than 130 times the pollution-causing sulfur that the United States allows in most diesel. While car sales in China are now growing even faster than truck sales, trucks are by far the largest source of street-level pollution. ....”
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