The sulfur dioxide and soot thrown off results not only in a polluted atmosphere but also acid rain that falls on a third of China's cities.

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E-Street Band member and "Sopranos" star Steven Van Zandt appeared to be the only celebrity in the building, but that didn't diminish the intense atmosphere.

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But rational calculations are not the only ones that influence public opinion, especially in the supercharged atmosphere of a first-ever referendum in a politically and ideologically divided society.

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He enrolled at Stanford in 2004 but only stayed a year, saying he didn't find "a very intellectual atmosphere" on the campus at the edge of Silicon Valley.

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And in the clubby atmosphere of the House of Commons, where he sat for 36 years (but only five as a minister), even his sternest critics were reluctant to call him a racist, a British Le Pen.

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Not only are they most affected but they have contributed the least to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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