By Kerry Trueman

China’s one of the world’s most prodigious producers of consumer goods, and, well, consumer not-so-goods. It’s gotten so out of hand that even some of Southern California’s smog is now manufactured in China. That’s right—according to the EPA, 25% of the particulates that hang over Los Angeles originate in China.

So, even if you could persuade every Angeleno to switch to a Prius, or follow in Ed Begley Jr.’s bicycle tracks, you’d still have to figure out what to do about the millions of folks in Beijing who’ve just ditched their bikes to buy a car. Car sales have exploded in China, and it’s threatening to blow up whatever progress we hope to make on the home front reducing greenhouse gases.

China’s unprecedented growth has prompted a literally breathtaking rise in pollution; according to a study from the Chinese government and the World Bank, some 750,000 infants a year face premature death from respiratory disease.

But just as China’s taken the lead when it comes to poisoning its waterways and air–and some of our air, too—industry leaders are starting to realize that this kind of unchecked growth has a malignant side to it. By letting its industries ignore existing regulations, China’s created an environmental crisis that’s going to require a level of technological teamwork the world has yet to see. If Western and Chinese leaders could put their heads together to solve China’s problems with cleaner technologies, we’d all be breathing easier.