Chinese Urban Pollution "Extremely Severe", Environmental Minister States - AFP

[hatrack]

And if it's the Environment Minister saying so . . . :puke:

BEIJING (AFP) — Air pollution in China's cities remains very serious, state media on Thursday quoted a minister as saying, amid an ongoing battle to clean up the skies in the world's largest coal-consuming nation. "There is the potential for serious air pollution incidents to happen, and the air environment situation is extremely severe," environmental protection minister Zhou Shengxian told parliament, the official People's Daily said.

"The difficulties in managing air pollution are intensifying, and environmental regulations as well as protection systems need to be further strengthened," he said Wednesday.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal and its appetite for the cheap fuel is growing as its economy expands, according to the Energy Bulletin, a website that monitors global energy supplies. In 2006, the World Bank said that 16 out of 20 of the world's worst polluted cities were in China.

A recent report by the state Xinhua news agency, citing a survey conducted in November last year in 320 cities, said the average air quality in two out of five Chinese cities ranged from "polluted" to "hazardous".

EDIT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j3EgkUrnrqUW_q5lzaNhwVqE8aBQ

[Systematic Chaos]

1. What comes next? "Severely Extreme"?

:eyes: