Reading reports about the heavy snow they are having in China,the railways hve all but closed down,but one old chap was saying this never happened in the old days because the heavy steam locomotives kept the lines open,now its freezing the diesel and bringing the overhead lines down,sometimes me thinks progress is not all its cracked up to be.

Isn't China the worlds's second biggest polluter? News such as this,makes me question the supposed pollution/global warming link.

First of all the clue is in the title 'global' warming. Not 'local' warming. Just because China tips out lots of pollution doesn't mean they are the only ones affected. Also, snow and rain form around particles in the atmosphere (you've probably heard the term 'cloud seeding' where they force it to rain artificially by adding particles to the atmosphere) so the fact that China has a lot of pollution and heavy snow is perhaps not so surprising after all.

I don't think there is any longer a debate about whether the planet is warming. It clearly is. The question is whether the warming is natural or a result of man. I have seen compelling graphs for both.

There are some really interesting books about global warming. Well worth a read. The Weathermakers is the best I have read so far.

I take your point, eatshrewsbury and yes, there's no doubt that the planet is getting warmer.But as you say, the question is whether the warming is natural or a result of man. - I suppose it could even be both!

Personally, I think nomatter how many carbon-footprint shrinking initiatives we put into practice here in the UK - China's pollution levels alone, will cancel out any good that we try doing.
I really think that we're wasting our time, unless China the other big offenders start caring too.

I agree RS,but where would the goverment get all their money from if it wasnt for all the 'green' taxes they are thrusting upon us.

You are right Redquirrel, anything we do will have little impact in the grand scheme of things, except that by doing something we may come up with solutions to problems that we can pass/sell onto the big polluters like China.

It's difficult to expect them to stop using coal because that's how we developed ourselves, and they also have massive reserves of it. But it's also wrong to think that they don't care about global warming - with more than one hundred and forty million Chinese living within 10 meters of sea level, and most of those on the typhoon threatened east coast, they have to care!