Make growth greener

The situation report on environmental protection can hardly inspire much optimism even with the long-anticipated fall in two key measures of pollution last year.

The total amount of sulphur dioxide discharged in 2007 was 24.681 million tons, a decrease of 4.66 percent compared with that the year before. And the chemical oxygen demand discharge was 13.833 million tons, decreasing by 3.14 percent, according to a report from the national environmental watchdog.

The fall, for the first time in several years, points to some encouraging signs for the entire environmental situation to start turning for the better.