China Building Two Power Plants a Week

[Servant222]

From the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6769743.stm

China building more power plants

China is now building about two power stations every week, the top climate change official at the UK Foreign Office, John Ashton, has said.

He said there was no point blaming China for rising global CO2 emissions.

Rich nations had to set an example of low-carbon development for China to follow, Mr Ashton told the BBC.

His statement came as a new report suggested that China may have already become the world's biggest polluter - much earlier than expected.

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said China's CO2 emissions had risen by 9% last year, compared with 1.4% in the US.

How do you spell "Gore" in Mandarin?

 

[Voegelin]

Rich nations had to set an example of low-carbon development for China to follow, Mr Ashton told the BBC.

Yeah right. The Chinese will tank their economy because...well...just because they want to emulate the UK.

Wouldn't suprise me if China is supporting some environmental activism in the west just as the KGB once did.

 

[Servant222]

When I was there in the late 1980's, the big debate was whether every Chinese family was entitled to have one car- never mind the 2.5 cars/family that Americans enjoy.

If I remember corrrectly, that would have tripled the number of cars in the world.

 

[Voegelin]

I read a similiar stat years ago. If Chinese increased the number of eggs they eat to one per person per day, it would take the entire grain crop of Australia to feed the hens.

 

[Servant222]

One of my interesting memories was noticing that the air in Beijing's Forbidden City was so polluted and diffuse that the sundial in the King's quarters couldn't be used to tell time.

 

[Servant222]

On a religious note, I brought a couple of parallel English-Mandarin Bibles with me and left them in Urumchi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in the far west. About half the population are Uygurs, who are Muslims.

Anyway, I wonder if my Bibles are still being used.