Choking on Growth: New York Times series

The New York Times is doing a series on China. Go to this url http://tinyurl.com/2rdszp and read the article about the effects of chemical spills on the people and land of China. The interesting part is how the Chinese government is dealing with one man who is an environmental activist. As I have noted before and read in more than one place - China's political system and its economic boom are not compatible. What does the future hold not only for China, but other countries who are dealing with the same problems? Is there a collaborative way to work on global problems?