The environment has emerged as one of Beijing's key priorities amid growing public disquiet
about urban smog, dwindling and polluted water supplies and the widespread industrial contamination of farmland.
U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists grew weeds in three sites: an organic farm in western Maryland, a park in a suburb of Baltimore, and in downtown Baltimore, which is choked with
smog and
about 3 to 4 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside because of the
urban heat island effect.