ARTICLE: China calls for help on climate change, By TINI TRAN, AP, Apr 24
Elizabeth Economy's book, The River Runs Black, says China can be made to move on enviro issues so long as the international community, vice any one bullying power, makes the pitch and access to new tech is part of the package. China fears being held to industrial standards we never held ourselves to during our rise, believing they may be used to torpedo that rise and thus foment civil unrest.
China's problem, though, is that, left unaddressed, enviro issues will do the same for sure.
Comments (4)
Not to burst anyone's bubble here BUT... I have very little faith in any government's ability to seriously change course with regards to greenhouse gas emissions.
China's use of coal to produce electricity will be (and probably already is) the largest single contributer of carbon emissions. It would be a huge surprise to me if they were able to change their plans somehow.
But given their reaction to Tibet, it is likely they would view any attempt by the world to convince them not to burn their coal (of which they have an enormous amount) as an attempt to keep China poor.
Unfortunately, given all that I have seen regarding this issue we will stupidly burn and deforest our way into a bad scenario. Then after we have ruined our ecology and pollution has incurred massive damage to humanity (during which China will be hit extra hard) we'll ask ourselves, "How did we let that happen?"
The answer of course will be simple: psychologically we have an aversion to winter, thus we subconsciously welcome "global warming". Also, it doesn't seem like anyone really cares about this issue.
We could care about things like pollution, or the genocide in Africa, but we've got the to deal with the pressing and serious issue of Mr. Wright.
We could probably power China for weeks on all the hot air that story generated....
Posted by Michael Frager | May 5, 2008 8:54 AM
If we say "don't burn coal, nevermind our sooty past", it will gain as much traction as when we say "set Tibet free, nevermind what we did to the Hawaiians or the Cherokee". Better approach - we'll license this technology and you can burn coal more cleanly, and we'll both make money doing so.
Posted by TEJ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 5, 2008 1:59 PM
My fellow Michael, it depends on whether the governments try to have a finger in all the environmental pies--or limit themselves to those actions they can actually do well. Granted, though, the record isn't great on this . . .
Posted by Michael![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 5, 2008 9:25 PM
The moonscapes in Appalachia are proof enough for me that we're not serious about anything but getting powered-up for cheap. And China
is held to what standard exactly? By whom? The UN is not going to work when John Bolton's ambassador.
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May 6, 2008 2:51 PM