In the face of environmental disaster, more Chinese are going green

While Olympic visitors from around the world get a firsthand glimpse this month at China's pollution problems, a homegrown movement is racing to ward off what many here predict could be epic environmental meltdown.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese are taking the first steps to turn the tide, fueled by growing unhappiness with the plunging quality of life caused by out-of-control environmental degradation.

Industrial districts such as Zibo in coastal Shandong province are closing heavily polluting factories and encouraging the development of cleaner industries. The effect of such efforts in Zibo, about 400 miles from the capital of Beijing, has been immediate, as the thick pall of smoke that used to cover the city just a year ago has disappeared.

Tens of millions of Chinese are also heating their water with rooftop solar water heaters, saving the electricity equivalent of 54 coal-fired power plants. Such facilities provide 80 percent of China's electricity and are among the dirtiest energy generators in the world.

Chinese developers are even planning the world's first eco-city designed from scratch on an island near the city of Shanghai, which will feature electricity-generating windmills and solar-powered water taxis.

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