But since then, soot in the snow has increased several times over due mainly to industrial emissions.
BBC: Human activities have left a visible mark on the Arctic
Among the other chemicals measured were vanillic acid and sulphur, two indicators of forest fire and industrial emissions, respectively.
BBC: Human activities have left a visible mark on the Arctic
The government's struggle to curb industrial emissions comes as China has emerged as the largest auto market for new vehicles.
Most experts warn against ozone, which results from the sun heating hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in vehicle and industrial emissions.
CNN: Research finds smog could deal a blow to children's health
Whilst some Seveso sites already meet these rules under the Industrial Emissions Directive, this means that others will be inspected more often in future.
The Kyoto protocol established a mechanism (see article) under which developing countries that cut their industrial emissions can sell those reductions to rich countries.
It has developed a method to extract carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and bubble it through seawater to create calcium carbonate, a process that mimics the buildup of coral.
The Bush administration has upset U.S. allies opposed to its plans to develop a missile defense system and its rejection of the Kyoto agreement on limiting industrial emissions linked to climate change.
John Baird, the Canadian environment minister, referred this week to the American move when he unveiled new proposals to reduce industrial emissions in Canada, including the oil sands, by 20% by 2020.
"Transport and industrial emissions generate smog that destroys sensitive tissues (in people and animals), as well as producing fine carcinogenic particles that reduce lung function, and are ultimately responsible for many untimely deaths each year, " Manins wrote in the report.
"When we compare changes in the black carbon to changes in these other indicators, it is clear that most of the increases in black carbon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in winter and spring, resulted from industrial emissions - probably from coal burning, " he added.
BBC: Human activities have left a visible mark on the Arctic
He says this will create regional jobs, increase resource security, reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, increase material efficiency and prevent carbon emissions and industrial waste - all on a big scale.
In his most specific proposal, Hu said China will increase forest cover by 40 million hectares by 2020 as a way to offset greenhouse gas emissions by industrial polluters, cars, airplanes and other sources.
CNN: Obama warns recession makes climate change fight harder
It will not just clean up its own industrial act (cutting emissions 1% over the next seven years, when emissions would otherwise have risen 40%) but also get more deeply into the business of selling eco-friendly devices to other companies.
As a student in Singapore studying engineering, Vivek decided to combine his interest in nanotechnology with his passion for the environment to attempt to turn carbon emissions from industrial plants and automobiles into carbon nanotubes, which are used for composites, nano-electronics, optics, energy storage, and other science applications.
FORBES: A New Generation of Techonomists Are Driven To Change the World
The new law requires a similar phased reduction in emissions from big industrial polluters starting in 2012.
By rejecting the Kyoto protocol, which would commit 38 industrial countries to control greenhouse emissions, Bush has discarded the convenient deceits.
Carbon trading was introduced as part of the Kyoto Protocol's goal to reduce certain industrial nations' greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012.
Between 2006 and 2010, according to official targets, emissions of big industrial pollutants are supposed to drop by 10%, and energy efficiency is supposed to rise sharply in the same period.
The two-week summit will look at what progress has been made by the legally binding agreement that requires industrial nations to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2% from 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | UN to talk on climate adaptation
Richardson also proposes the implementation of a market-based cap and trade system for greenhouse gas emissions in order to create incentives for the electric and industrial sectors to make significant reductions in their carbon emissions.
Last month, the EPA unveiled a scaled-back version of regulations it proposed last year targeting emissions of pollutants from industrial boilers after being deluged with letters and comments.
Its arcane rules require 55 countries (who must represent at least 55% of the industrial world's greenhouse-gas emissions in 1990) to ratify the pact before it comes into force.
Essentially, 12, 000 or so electricity generators and industrial heavy users of energy have had their emissions limited by EU law.
BBC: Green energy on the back foot after carbon trading blow
The treaty, named after Kyoto, Japan, the city where it was negotiated and signed in 1997, calls for industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants believed to contribute to global warming.
Soon after President Bush took office, his EPA administrator, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, traveled to Europe to meet with the top eight European industrial powers and came to an agreement to cap carbon emissions.
The European Union, for example, wants to see industrial nations--its own members included--bring emissions of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases down to 85% of what they were in 1990, and do it within the next 12 years.
In the 1980s nitrogen controls were placed on industrial plant and vehicles, This has led to a cut in emissions of 30%, despite an increase in traffic and economic activity.
OK, yes, we have cut the emissions from the gasoline we would otherwise have used but the CO2 from the industrial process still ends up in the atmosphere.
Concentration for most pollutants remains high despite legislation passed in 2002 to control emissions in ten of China's biggest cities and several river valleys that provide industrial arteries into the interior from the heavily populated coasts.
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