Few motor vehicles now drive along the highway from Zuoquan County to Yangquan City after nine o'clock in the evening. "There used to be a steady stream, day and night, of trucks transporting coal," says Sun. This falling-off of commercial traffic is attributable to a lower national demand for coal as a result of the financial crisis.

    Since 2008, the Chinese government has intensified administrative accountability. When a pollution accident occurs, local officials are punished. Prospects of a sustained career in officialdom and economic interests have encouraged various localities to strengthen measures that discourage pollutant enterprises. Between 2003 and 2006, Zuoquan County closed down 55 small coal mines and small ore dressing plants, a move that reduced annual wastewater discharges by 300,000 tons. In 2007, the Zuoquan Changtai Chemicals Company, chief polluter of the Qingzhang River, was closed down.

    The same year, China began supporting medium-sized and small environmentally friendly enterprises. The Zuoquan county government has since implemented preferential taxation policies and offered loans in efforts to accelerate the green economy. Former iron-ore miner Guo Heping, having decided in 2006 to "do something he liked," sold his shares in the iron-ore mine and invested RMB 400,000 in contracting 2,460 hectares of mountain pasture, to "build a green tourism and holiday resort."

    Guo Heping looks older than his 29 years. After graduating from senior high school he worked at an ore-dressing plant. China's rising coal and iron ore demands since 2002 consistently raised coal and iron ore prices. As a result, Guo "gained wealth beyond expectation." He became a millionaire and now owns his own mining team and property in the city.

    Guo Heping nonetheless finds developing a green tourism and holiday resort a daunting prospect. "I'm a bit worried about having quit mining," he admits. "What will my main work be? I must, after all, earn money."

    Guo Heping's quandary is one that many in this coal-producing province share.

    Publicizing environmental protection in economically backward countryside villages has been uphill work for Ju Qiongying. As she said, "Villagers are most concerned about practical benefits. They don't see that protecting environment means protecting themselves."

    Both central and local television stations air public service advertisements, featuring Chinese Olympic champions, which promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle. But China, a developing country with a per capita GDP of US $2,000, and at the development stage of industrialization and urbanization, must tackle also the formidable tasks of poverty elimination and raising people's living standards.

    As Greenpeace member Li Yan says, "China's greatest challenge is coping with climate change while at the same time achieving sustainable development." She adds, "The international community should give China and other developing countries more support in their efforts to cooperate in coping with climate change and become low-carbon societies," an observation frequently raised by Greenpeace in international negotiations.