China has more than the weather to blame for its gray winter days. Heavy industrial production and winter weather conspire to exacerbate the country's smog problem, enveloping Beijing and the surrounding provinces in a dense brownish-gray cloud. On Monday, Reuters published a leaked copy of a draft document that lays out the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection's latest attempt to curb wintertime pollution. The document proposes to mitigate the smog by slashing heavy industrial activity, including production of aluminum, steel and fertilizer, and ban coal shipments from the key port of Tianjin -- measures that could shake global commodity markets.
However drastic the proposed reforms may seem, China has little choice but to try to take on its environmental problems. The country's rapid economic climb has come at a high cost to its environment and natural resources. Today, poor air quality and polluted water are a fact of life in much...
