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Is China Finally Kicking Its Coal Addiction?

The first half of 2014 saw China's first decline in total coal consumption in over a decade.Image: The first half of 2014 saw China's first decline in total coal consumption in over a decade.

huffingtonpost.com - September 12th, 2014 - Matt Sheehan

It may be difficult to see through the putrid smog, but major changes appear to be taking shape in China’s coal industry. So far this year, Chinese coal consumption has hit two major milestones: Coal consumption through June and coal imports through August both dropped for the first time in over a decade.

Environmental activists aren't yet popping the Champagne, but taken together, these data points suggest that market forces and government mandates are causing China's decadelong coal binge to finally peak and potentially sputter.

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China’s Solar Panel Production to Double by 2017

                             

earth-policy.org - by J. Matthew Roney - July 8, 2014

China installed a world record amount of solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity in 2013. While this was the first time the country was the number one installer, China has led all countries in making PV for the better part of a decade. China now accounts for 64 percent of global solar panel production—churning out 25,600 megawatts of the nearly 40,000 megawatts of PV made worldwide in 2013—according to data from GTM Research. . .

. . . As demand for increasingly affordable solar power continues to climb around the world, GTM Research projects that China’s annual solar panel output will double to 51,000 megawatts by 2017, representing close to 70 percent of global production at that time.

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China Leads World to Solar Power Record in 2013

earth-policy.org - by J. Matthew Roney - June 18,2014

In the last two years, countries around the world have added almost as much new solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity as had been added since the invention of the solar cell. . .

. . . China—the leading manufacturer of PV—had until recently installed very little solar power at home. Those days are over.

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China Says More Than Half of Its Groundwater is Polluted

      

A pipe discharges factory waste water from the Shenhua coal-to-liquid project into a stream in the hills in Ordos in the inner Mongolia. Photograph: Qiu Bo/Greenpeace

Number of groundwater sites of poor or extremely poor quality increases to 59.6%, Chinese government says

theguardian.com - by Jonathan Kaiman - April 23, 2014

Nearly 60% of China’s underground water is polluted, state media has reported, underscoring the severity of the country’s environmental woes.

The country’s land and resources ministry found that among 4,778 testing spots in 203 cities, 44% had “relatively poor” underground water quality; the groundwater in another 15.7% tested as “very poor”.

Water quality improved year-on-year at 647 spots, and worsened in 754 spots, the ministry said.

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Toxic Tap Water Spurs Panic Buying in China City

      

A man pushes a shopping cart filled with bottled water after reports on heavy levels of benzene in local tap water, in Lanzhou, Gansu province, China. (Reuters photo)

phys.org - April 11, 2014

Tap water in a Chinese city was found to contain excessive levels of the toxic chemical benzene, prompting residents to rush to buy bottled water, state media said on Friday.

Tests conducted on Thursday and Friday showed that tap water in Lanzhou, the capital of northwestern Gansu province, had as much as 200 micrograms of benzene per litre, 20 times the national limit, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local environment authorities.

Benzene is an aromatic, colourless liquid and a basic raw material used in the petrochemical industry. Human exposure to the chemical increases the risk of cancer and other illnesses.

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China - Typhoon Haiyan Information

Cây cối, biển quảng cáo đổ, xe tải lật... là những cảnh tượng diễn ra ở đảo Hải Nam, phần lãnh thổ đầu tiên của Trung Quốc hứng siêu bão Haiyan gây ra sau khi đổi hướng đột ngột.
http://www.tienphong.vn/the-gioi/656026/Bao-Haiyan-hat-vang-xe-tai-o-Trung-Quoc-tpol.html

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Chinese citizens losing patience with air pollution consequences

PBS Newshour - aired October 21, 2013 - www.pbs.org

China's tremendous growth has transformed the lives of its citizens but it has also come with a cost: significant air pollution. The major industrial city of Harbin shut down when smog levels reached record levels. Jeffrey Brown talks to Evan Osnos of The New Yorker about the ramifications of China's air quality problems.

[Read video transcript here]

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Tons of poisoned fish clog river in China's Hubei province

Dead fish being cleared from the Fuhe River. Stringer/AFP/Gettyimages

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Chinese Police Fired on Tibetans Marking Dalai Lama Birthday

The incident took place as crowds gathered to commemorate the Dalai Lama

bbc.co.uk - July 9, 2013

Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans who had gathered to mark the Dalai Lama's birthday, injuring several, rights groups and reports say.

The incident happened in Daofu in Sichuan province on 6 July.

A crowd had gathered at a mountain to mark the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's birthday with offerings and incense, when police used tear gas and opened fire, the reports said.

China's Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the reports, Reuters said.

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China’s Next Chapter: The Infrastructure and Environmental Challenge

mckinsey.com - June 2013

McKinsey’s Jonathan Woetzel explores China’s huge infrastructure program and the country’s plans to build sustainable urban clusters for hundreds of millions of its people.

“It’s safe to say that China has had the single-biggest buildout of infrastructure in the history of mankind,” says McKinsey’s Jonathan Woetzel. “And clearly still more to go.” Indeed, despite the progress resulting from hundreds of billions of dollars in investment over the past 15 years, the efficiency of China’s infrastructure still lags behind that of developed countries by decades.

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