In China, as in other nations that produce carbon dioxide from fossil fuels on a large scale, the terrestrial biosphere mops up a proportion of the emissions. Estimates of the amounts involved are now available. According to recent estimates, in late 2006 China overtook the United States as the world's number one emitter of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. This dubious honour highlighted the swift growth of CO_2 emissions in China, much of that growth being due to rapid industrialization fuelled by coal-powered energy and cement manufacturing (during which especially large amounts of CO_2 are produced). As reported on page 1009 by Piao and colleagues', and as in other large CO_2 emitters of the Northern Hemisphere, Chinas trees, shrubs and soils are acting to partly offset the CO_2 emissions resulting from fossil-fuel combustion. Piao et al.
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