Wednesday, January 27, 2010

China overtakes US as worlds biggest C02 emitter

According to the article on CULearn ,"The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency found, China's recorded emissions for 2006 are beyond those from the US already. It says China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US." I believe that CO2 emissions and the green efforts are a good thing, and that pollution is ruining our beautiful world. I also think that China is doing a good job at combatting there large pollution problems. They have built the largest solar plants in the world and have begun to take over with the largest GREEN movement. I feel that It is the rest of the world that is being somewhat hypocritical. The efforts of globalization have moved companies and industries into Chinas market. We have taken large factories and just thrown them into China for cheap labor and now China is the leader of pollution. I think the problem of China begins on our own soil, and they should not be blamed completely for there large pollution numb

15 comments:

  1. I don't feel anything in those articles suggested blame was being put on China. The issue is their growing population,the article mentions India as well. It would be foolish to solely focus on the U.S. or any one country, this is a GLOBAL issue that requires each nation to participate 100 percent or no significant change can be made.

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  2. I also agree that all of the blame isn't on China. But in no time, their middle class will get larger and consume more and more. China is quickly becoming a major contender for a world super power. What will the point be when China is held accountable for their actions despite their priority of economic growth?

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  3. It's true China emits more than the U.S., but think about how many people there are in China, something like 1.3 billion? As China is rapidly developing, overall socioeconomic status is rising there, leading to more consumption and therefore more production and emissions. China's economy is growing and becoming a close competitor with the U.S., but considering how many more people there are it doesn't seem that odd that they emit more. I agree with Andrew, I feel like everyone is in the same boat, that we all need to figure out better ways to reduce emissions collectively.

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  4. China has enough man power to accomplish anything, if they want to clean up their country they will, because of their large population and autocratic government

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  5. This is an international problem. Perhaps focusing on developing countries, who haven't yet invested heavily in traditional energy infrastructure, would have more beneficial results. Getting these states to invest in renewables would probably be cheaper in the long run, and cut down c02 on a global scale.

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  6. The aftermath of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference at the end of 2009 may have tainted the image of China's industrializing economy, at least for the time being. According to sources at NPR news, China had declared that their massive carbon emissions were necessary to catch up with already developed countries, such as the United States. They compare their present development to that of the United States (and other developed countries) during their industrialization decades ago. China, who does fund many green energy projects as mentioned, is at least acknowledging that global carbon emissions is a trivial issue, but for now they justifiably emit carbon like it was 1969.

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  7. Judith Taylor's Comment – I think that the rapid development of non-polluting solar panels and wind turbines by China will just become another form of extreme dependence on foreign energy sources for the US similar to the current situation regarding with foreign oil. It is just a less polluting form of energy dependence. One problem regarding a nation exporting extreme amounts of energy (in any form) seems to be the inverse relationship that develops between to the amount of money received to free speech and democratic governance. If China becomes the main supplier of solar panels and wind turbines, any hope for a society with a free populous will totally disappear. I also worry about the R &D within the US which will be stifled.

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  8. China's efforts to be green and wean off their dependence on coal can also be shown by their commitment to wind energy. Their goal is to reach 10 GW in 2010, but there's a difficulty in transferring the energy from wind farms into the Grid. Therefore, wind energy as of yet can not be used on large scale. I do think, though, that relying mainly on wind energy would help reduce China's CO2 emissions, and they have the perfect land conditions to do so.

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  9. I agree that China's large population is a huge component of their pollution emissions. I also think that as green industries become more competitive on a global scale,China will be very quick to jump aboard. They have proven themselves to be a huge competitor in the global market and I imagine they will be able to stay up with the changing times.

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  10. China's breakneck pace of economic growth is still going to result in increased energy consumption, and the cheapest form of energy is still in fossil fuels. Their acknowledgment of the need for renewables is encouraging, but the way to begin seriously curbing CO2 and other climate change contributors is going to depend on this technology becoming widely available as other developing countries begin consuming more energy. The U.S. would be wise to collaborate with the Chinese as this becomes a new economic opportunity.

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  11. I especially thought it was interesting how China (even being one of the world's largest CO2 emitters)is trying to be seen as a world power by allowing more cars to be subsidized for citizens (300,000), however it it truthfully wanted to be recognized as a world power it should try and lead the way for others to follow. By this I mean China should have taken a different route by subsidizing environmental friendly vehicles, and shock other nations by China's good example. I wish that this was the truth, but I guess they haven't yet reached that level of maturity.

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  12. I couldn't agree more with your opinion that the rest of the world is being hypocritical. We got to where we are by degrading the environment and outsourcing to countries such as China yet, when they do exactly what we did, we shun them and write them off as irresponsible. Unfortunately for China, they are going to have to find a way to grow while being environmentally conscious which is going to be far more difficult for them.

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  13. Are there any projections for China's future emissions? The country is in a period of rapid growth and industrialization and I can only assume their emissions will continue to increase. I agree that emission reduction should be a coordinated international effort. At the very least there should be least-requirement guidelines to ensure the conservation efforts of one country aren't off-put by another's disregard.

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  14. The fact that China has surpassed the U.S. in CO2 emissions does not surprise me at all. Regardless of how high of a standard of living we have here in America, just look at the sheer number of people in China, the fossil-fuel burning power plants to accommodate all those people, and the huge amount of industry. It was bound to happen, and regardless of China's hopeful green future, CO2 emissions are not going to decline any time soon.

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  15. I agree that China shouldn't be blamed for their booming economy. They are spending resources on alternative energy, but more needs to be done, especially since they still have so much further to go in their development. Whoever said earlier that's its a global effort is absolutely right; developed countries need to start the process and help developing countries - especially China and India, with their huge populations - in working to rely more on renewable energy and less on fossil fuels, so as to limit global CO2 emissions. I can't even imagine what the global CO2 emissions will be in 20 years if everyone doesn't start trying to go green.

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