China's CO2 Output Passes US

China has overtaken the US as the world's biggest CO2 emitter. A Dutch study says China is coughing up 9% more fossil fuel into the air than last year, compared with a 1.4% increase from the superpower across the Pacific. And the trend is up: China's industry is growing so fast, it's building two new power stations a week to meet energy demands.

A British climate-change expert says the West has to set the burgeoning country an example rather than point fingers if it wants to bind China's growing carbon footprint. The BBC also qualifies that the results are not per capita: The average American still adds 6 times more pollution to the atmosphere than the average Chinese. (More carbon emissions stories.)