China proves yet again they are the masters of hypocrisy.
"Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a top UN official urged industrialised nations Friday to alter their lifestyles and not let the global financial crisis hamper climate change efforts."
This from a country that is trying its best to become rich while shunning any forms of restraint in the way of pollution, and strongly resenting any outside suggestions that they should be held accountable.
Now, I think we've been rather schitzophrenic in our approach to being environmentally conscious in this country. One on hand, we rant about how we're destroying the world through carbon emissions. On the other hand, we pass enough regulations to make it nearly impossible to build a nuclear power plant, which is the cleanest and most efficient form of power currently known. It's as if our ancestors had spurned the printing press and kept us in the Dark ages because books are flammable.
But, even if we threw restraint to the wind, and allowed companies to dump their waste in the nearest national park on a whim, we would have a hard time catching up to China, who is apparently building one coal power plant per week, and turning the Yellow River red.
Note the irony:
"Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a top UN official urged industrialised nations Friday to alter their lifestyles and not let the global financial crisis hamper climate change efforts."
This from a country that is trying its best to become rich while shunning any forms of restraint in the way of pollution, and strongly resenting any outside suggestions that they should be held accountable.
Now, I think we've been rather schitzophrenic in our approach to being environmentally conscious in this country. One on hand, we rant about how we're destroying the world through carbon emissions. On the other hand, we pass enough regulations to make it nearly impossible to build a nuclear power plant, which is the cleanest and most efficient form of power currently known. It's as if our ancestors had spurned the printing press and kept us in the Dark ages because books are flammable.
But, even if we threw restraint to the wind, and allowed companies to dump their waste in the nearest national park on a whim, we would have a hard time catching up to China, who is apparently building one coal power plant per week, and turning the Yellow River red.
Note the irony:
"China has long resisted calls to join rich nations in setting targets for emissions cuts, saying its relatively low per capita emissions and recent emergence as a major source of greenhouse gases should exempt it from action.
Scientists said in September that China had leapfrogged the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the principal gases that cause global warming."
They only manage the low per capita rate by having more than a billion people. All of whom are trying their best to attain the "unsustainable" lifestyle of their western counterparts.
This is also just one example of why our current policy of sucking up to China totally baffles me.
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1 comment:
Quite ironic indeed.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, in 2004 the total greenhouse gas emissions from the People's Republic of China were about 54% of the U.S. emissions.However, China is now building on average one coal-fired power plant every week, and plans to continue doing so for years. Various predictions see China overtaking the U.S. in total greenhouse emissions between late 2007 and 2010 and according to many other estimates, this already occurred in 2006.
There's a joke in there somewhere, however, my brain hurts too much.
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