Think Again: Green China

this article is honest. i remember some guy saying all that matters is in absolute terms, china pollutes more than the us.

i replied the us pollutes more than canada, and that shut up him

good article, but i think it would have been fair to show, as a % of gdp, how much money was spent on "green" projects.

How much did China pay you for that little piece of good news?

I know for a fact, that China pays for propaganda right here in the U.S. and there are a few "journalists" who love those little envelopes passed under the table.

Unfortunately, Christina, the huge cloud of pollution that floats over the Pacific from China sort of counter's the green image that you sadly tried to promote.

Nice try though.

I'm surprised you did not mention geologic sequestration of carbon, which will reduce carbon emissions and where China is also on the front edge of the curve with 2 large carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Apart from the ridiculous comment here by someone who clearly can't read a whole article and understand it; this article is a great balance of showing the positive and negative impacts of rapid change under a totalitarian system.

One obvious issue with China getting ahead of the race on Green energy is that after the initial outlay Green energy becomes an incredibly cheap resource. Although there are issues of supply matching demand since it is the machinery for capturing the energy that is the expensive outlay; if it is built durable and made cheap to maintain it reduces costs massively. Cheap energy of course means a massive cost in manufacturing costs. After the initial outlay China may actually be able to increase profit margins, reduce manufacturing costs and still produce cheaper goods than America. This of course is a serious economic threat. The unfortunate contrast is that the North American continent actually offers far more natural energy resources than China but will remain untapped because one of the large players in the 2 party system (which is often as undemocratic is just having 1 party) is owned by the oil industry, opposed to environmentalism and any large scale government program that would require Tax hikes and massive oversight. Energy reform that could protect and save the American economy will be opposed by the Republicans every step of the way (but Republicans have always been a cancer on the American economy as their solid record of devastation to American growth has always shown). Sadly Democrats owned by the interests of unions will also struggle to make significant reform.

However amidst all of this it is worth remembering that the price of centralized control in China is the loss of freedom and the risk that one universally "agreed" plan may not even be the right one. Americas only real hope is to keep Religion out of the classroom and keep Science in. If Americans can increase scientific literacy in the face of the wave of ignorance started in the Reagan era then America may actually stand a chance to remain the dominant world player, in energy and technology.

Apart from the ridiculous comment here by someone who clearly can't read a whole article and understand it; this article is a great balance of showing the positive and negative impacts of rapid change under a totalitarian system.

One obvious issue with China getting ahead of the race on Green energy is that after the initial outlay Green energy becomes an incredibly cheap resource. Although there are issues of supply matching demand since it is the machinery for capturing the energy that is the expensive outlay; if it is built durable and made cheap to maintain it reduces costs massively. Cheap energy of course means a massive cost in manufacturing costs. After the initial outlay China may actually be able to increase profit margins, reduce manufacturing costs and still produce cheaper goods than America. This of course is a serious economic threat. The unfortunate contrast is that the North American continent actually offers far more natural energy resources than China but will remain untapped because one of the large players in the 2 party system (which is often as undemocratic is just having 1 party) is owned by the oil industry, opposed to environmentalism and any large scale government program that would require Tax hikes and massive oversight. Energy reform that could protect and save the American economy will be opposed by the Republicans every step of the way (but Republicans have always been a cancer on the American economy as their solid record of devastation to American growth has always shown). Sadly Democrats owned by the interests of unions will also struggle to make significant reform.

However amidst all of this it is worth remembering that the price of centralized control in China is the loss of freedom and the risk that one universally "agreed" plan may not even be the right one. Americas only real hope is to keep Religion out of the classroom and keep Science in. If Americans can increase scientific literacy in the face of the wave of ignorance started in the Reagan era then America may actually stand a chance to remain the dominant world player, in energy and technology.