China Now World's Top Polluter

"Put another way, the projected annual increase in China alone over the next several years is greater than the current emissions produced by either Great Britain or Germany.

The researchers studied pollution data from China's 30 provincial entities in order to obtain a more precise snapshot of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Everybody had been treating China as single country, but each of the country's provinces is larger than many European countries, both in geographic size and population," said Carson.

"In addition, there is a wide range in economic development and wealth from one province to the next, as well as major differences in population growth, all of which has an effect on energy consumption that cannot be easily addressed in models based upon aggregate national data."

Aufhammer said the results showed the "emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations, and that means the goal of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 is going to be much, much harder to achieve."

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

Planet Green

Global Warming

How Stuff Works: Carbon Footprints