China Blames The West For Global Warming, "Determined" Not To Allow Economic "Undermining" - FT

[hatrack]

Rich industrialised nations must take the lead in cutting greenhouse gases since they bear the “unshirkable responsibility” for causing global warming, a Chinese official said on Tuesday.

The comments by a foreign ministry spokeswoman underscore China’s determination not to allow international action on climate change to undermine its economic development.

Rapid economic growth, a huge population and inefficient industry have made China the world’s second largest carbon emitter after the US – new data show that power generating capacity in the country in 2006 expanded by an amount equal to the entire capacity of the UK and Thailand combined. But the country’s per capita emissions have remained far below the global average.

“It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions,” Reuters news agency quoted Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, at a briefing on Tuesday.

EDIT

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e7301c1e-b5fc-11db-9eea-0000779e2340.html

Hmm . . . How do you say "greenhouse gas intensity" in Chinese?

:eyes:

[The2ndWheel]

1. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, darn it all to heck

We're going to destroy our habitat so that we can save ourselves. That's what progress has always been about, and you can't stop progress. See everyone on the flip side.

[Hoping4Change]

2. In some respects China is right, for the average Canadian consumes

far more energy tha the average Chinese.

"The West has been guilty of many of China's bad environmental habits, too. The average Canadian, for example, consumes far more energy than the average Chinese and is responsible for releasing far more carbon dioxide. But with China's massive population, and its reluctance to enforce the use of modern anti-pollution equipment, China is quickly catching up to the industrialized world as a cause of global warming.

China is officially striving to restrain the rapid growth of its coal consumption, but mainly because of concern for its coal reserves, not because of the global-warming issue. And its efforts so far have been weak and ineffective. Even when it shuts down an illegal coal mine, the mine is often reopened by local workers and businessmen who don't want to lose the revenue."


This is from an excellent article about the world's most polluted city, Linfen China.



"The wheat farmers of Donglu village can't sell their harvest. The wheat kernels are dark, sooty, hollow and twisted.

"Nobody wants to buy it, so we have to eat it at home," says Zhang Xiaojiao, a farmer in the village.

"Look at it," she says, brandishing a handful of the stuff. "It doesn't taste good. It tastes bitter. It's because of the coal pollution. But nobody cares about us, and nobody comes to investigate."

All around this valley, thousands of peasants are trying to carve out an existence against the thick dust that chokes the air and settles heavily over every living thing. The soil is covered with a layer of grey soot. Tree leaves are laden with dust. The cabbages are blackened."



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070203.wclimatechina03/BNStory/ClimateChange/home

[brokensymmetry]

3. And people actually think we'll control CO2

emissions? There's not a chance.

We're going to bake this planet to a golden
brown or worse. The best hope the human race
has is for a few colonies to survive in
Antartica.

No doubt they'll fight a war at that point...

[phantom power]

4. Mental image:

That scene from the movie Point Break, where Reeves and Swayze are diving out of the plane. They're falling toward the ground at terminal velocity. They've got each other in a wrestling hold for a gun. Neither one wants to let go first, but if somebody doesn't, their parachute won't open.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Apparently, it's

溫室氣體強度

and "Oh Fucking Hell, We're All Doomed" Comes out as

哦他媽的地獄,我們都是注定

Well, according to google, anyway. I'm in no position to argue. :shrug:

[Odin2005]

6. We're fucked.

Can the Chinese be THAT stupidly short-sighted? They are going to be a developed country very soon now.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Never underestimate stupidity.

If we could use it to generate electricity, we could solve our problems overnight - Although we wouldn't, of course.

[Porcupine]

8. Never mind that big desert at your back door......

or the fact that desert nomads have swept through China several times before for several reasons. Losing their livelihoods to rapid desertification would be a good reason.

Never mind that all your little boys are coughing their lungs out and poisoning their precious bodily fluids.

Just keep on burning coal. Everything will be fine.

NOT.