China ...

Posted by David Roberts at 12:52 PM on 10 Jun 2008

Read more about: politics | China | economy

In the debate over climate and sustainable development, people often talk about China as though it is some sort of rapacious automaton, blindly dedicated to growing its economy no matter the cost. But while I've never been to China, I'm told it's filled with intelligent people. They know how to read -- for instance, how to read reports saying they're on track to exhaust their natural resources in the next couple of decades. Presumably the Chinese leadership is not suicidal, so it seems logical to think that sooner than later we're going to have an active partner in the search for sustainability. We have many challenges ahead, but I don't think wrestling China into a headlock and forcing them to take steps to shift to a clean economy is going to be one of them.

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funny thing about knowing how to read...

It's one thing to know how to read something in front of you, in your web browser. It's quite another thing to know how to circumvent your nation's border routers in order to load something to read into your web browser...

by jdcasey at 1:28 PM on 10 Jun 2008

Funny thing about the article...

...is that the whole world is about the hit the wall -- I believe we already need way over one earth, footprint-wise. The Chinese have managed to "catch-up" with the developed countries in terms of footprint.

by Jon Rynn at 1:52 PM on 10 Jun 2008

Jon Rynn

is right. A good portion of the population doesn't have access to any original news, and when they do it is censored. You'd have to know not only how to read, but how to access underground information and or how to re-route your internet access around the 'great firewall of china'. http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/

Aside from that, there are mega-corporations pouring billions of profits from our pockets into this new industrial revolution, urging the lowest overhead and the quickest production times. These companies know what they are doing, and how America feels about it. Walmart for instance touts itself as a 'sustainability leader' with it's few greenish facilities here in the US while encouraging methods in China that are not only not green, but are usually illegal here.. http://tinyurl.com/64asem

It doesn't seem to me, that when all of the information about our 'contribution' trickles down to the Chinese common person, they will be very happy to be our partner in anything.

by morganmghee at 4:33 PM on 10 Jun 2008

Whoops

I meant jdcasey.

by morganmghee at 4:40 PM on 10 Jun 2008
[ Parent ]

American Xenophobes

Any American who obsesses on China's behaviors is either racist or anti-anything not American. We don't live in China and, aside from consuming as little as possible, have no influence over its behavior. Furthermore, there are plenty of things the U.S. is doing to destroy the planet, so it's nothing short of hypocritical to focus criticisms at China. While China is evil, so is the U.S., and the latter even more so in that it is responsible for many of the original environmental problems that China is now being accused of causing or exacerbating.

If you're an American, focus on getting the U.S. to stop its environmental destruction. Once that's accomplished, we can turn our efforts outward. Until then, let's look in the mirror and stop worrying about what others are doing, destructive as it might be.

by Wolverine at 3:17 PM on 11 Jun 2008

Uhm

By focusing on cleaning up our own house, the mess has been sent overseas. (taking jobs with it) Since China doesn't exist in a bubble, rather is included a thing called the 'global climate system', we have to follow up.
And I think if you'll read the comments and even the article, you will see we are focused on the 'American Funded' fossil fuel burning industrial revolution that has pumped it up to the largest Co2 producer in the world from 3rd just within the past year or less.

by morganmghee at 1:30 PM on 17 Jun 2008
[ Parent ]

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