ARTICLE: “Beijing Seeks Energy Cuts; Localities Find Loopholes,” by Howard W. French, New York Times, 24 November 2007, p. A1.
The center decrees the need for greater fuel efficiency and cleaner sources/uses, and the provinces, turned loose under Deng’s mantra of getting rich is good, simply ignore the directives.
This is a microcosm of the global pollution problems: in aggregate, everyone sees the needs to address, but locally, people just want to get by and get rich.
So the push for green will be a strengthening of the center in China, not its weakening. Counterintuitive to some, but less so for students of Chinese history.
Fascinating map on the jump page: most efficient energy users are the coastal provinces from Beijing down to Guangdong. The middling are those just inside that band. The worst are the inner-most, interior rural provinces. It’s like Core/Seam/Gap all inside China, in environmental terms.
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Comments (1)
you have encapsuled the the history of china
a continuing struggle to gain power over the coastal provinces, to extend power into the middle of the country, and then to extend power to the remote ruler areas of the far interior
our domestic energy process presents a well-known and well-documented global environment coal-burning problem and china's energy process presents another one
despite extensive health issues caused by burning coal for electricity the us does not acknowledge a need to change
china which is much more dependent on coal will not act until the us resolves its coal problem
the coal problem is like the opium problem
how do you change horses in midstream
why would you give up your $
we have a coal problem and china has
Posted by jamzo | December 21, 2007 11:12 AM