Environmental Science 15th Edition by Scott Spoolman,Tyler Miller

Exercise 6

During much of the time since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the United States and European nations fueled their economic growth by burning coal, with little effort to control the resulting air pollution. Eventually, as they became more affluent, they established air pollution standards and sought cleaner energy sources. Now China, which has been fueling its rapid economic growth largely by burning coal, says it is being asked to shift to cleaner energy resources before it becomes affluent enough to do so, even though most countries have not made such a shift. Do you think this is a fair expectation? Explain.