Chinese coal burning plants are responsible for this. Free Tibet.

OK Lee,

I guess I'll post the same reply twice since you posted essentially the same content twice.

What exactly are you smoking? Or, were you being sarcastic?

China has finally surpassed the U.S., a bit ahead of schedule, meaning we're roughly equal. However, they have almost 4 times as many people in their country as we do, meaning each U.S. resident is still polluting 4 times as much as each Chinese resident.

So, by a very real definition of who is polluting, we in the U.S. must do everything we can to reduce climate change. There is, quite literally, no one that can do more. This is because there is, quite literally, no one that pollutes more.

CO2 is produced by humans talking. Misanthropic, you can lead by example in reducing CO2 in this case. Smoke from coal buring in China is a big problem for the Chinese that live there. You only care about rich American comfort.

Lee,

I wasn't talking. I was typing.

I agree that other forms of pollution are a problem as well as the CO2 that causes climate change. I am also well aware that China needs to clean up its act in order to lower the particulate pollution in their air.

Keep in mind though that reducing particulate pollution has a relatively quick effect on particulate matter in the air. Reducing CO2 takes a much longer and more concerted effort. Not only does the CO2 hang around in the atmosphere far longer, but we must also remember that all of the climate change we are already experiencing is from CO2 that was pumped into the air 10 years ago.

The 10 year lag is a real problem because it means that even if we completely stopped pumping CO2 into the atmosphere artificially with machinery, as opposed to naturally by blathering on about how climate change is not our fault but China's, we would still have 10 years of warming ahead of us.

Please also take note of Bob's comment on this thread:

http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/archives/2007/07/4979_weird_weather_w_22.html

He makes an excellent point about the fact that China is burning all that coal and using all that energy, in large part to feed our consumerism.

Lastly, to attempt to pin one particular locale of climate change on the CO2 from one particular nation is completely ridiculous. The atmosphere circulates very quickly. Climate change comes from all of the CO2 emitted from all nations.

In fact, the particulate matter from China causes something known as global dimming. The particulate matter is terrible for the environment. However, it does have the effect of causing some level of cooling, by blocking sunlight.

This is one of the reasons we underestimated the effects of CO2 on climate for a long time. Cleaning up the air, which is clearly a good thing, will actually contribute to global warming by allowing the sunlight through again. So, to blame warming in Tibet on China's particulate matter pollution is not only silly, it's just plain wrong.

Coal plants the world over must be shut down. We should shut ours too. Coal is the worst source of energy in the world in every possible way. But, we still don't get to blame others for our own energy hungry lifestyles.

Take some responsibility for your own life and start reducing your footprint on the planet, as we all must.