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China is Number One!?

in a story in today's yahoo news ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_hi_te/as... ) we see China has moved ahead of the USA in total energy use, and within the story the line:

"Sensitive to its status as the world's biggest polluter, China has long pointed fingers at developed nations in climate change talks and resists any label that could increase international pressure for it to take a larger role in curbing greenhouse gas emissions."

Given that China has little or no environmental and pollution standards, isn't it time those who fear AGW is destroying the planet to call for a boycott of Chinese goods?

8 Answers

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  • David
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    Sure.

    It's also time for "who fear AGW is destroying the planet to" stop driving cars, flying on airplanes, heating and cooling their homes, using electricity or partaking in any technology more advanced that that of the mid-Pleistocene.

    Fat chance of any of that happening.

    Red China's CO2 emissions have been growing asymptotically over the last 20 years; while the USA's emissions have leveled off over the last 10 years...

    http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k247/dhm1353/USA...

    If we held our emissions steady over the next 40 years, atmospheric CO2 levels would continue to rise.

    Even if every industrialized nation on Earth successfully implemented an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 (80 by 50), we would not significantly alter the trajectory of the growth in atmospheric CO2. An 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 would mean that the atmospheric CO2 levels would only rise to about 433 ppmv by 2050 instead of about 468 ppmv. Atmospheric CO2 levels are currently ~388 ppmv.

    In order to achieve "80 by 50" the USA would have to reduce its per capita carbon emissions to levels not seen since the 1860's.

    If we assume that all of the warming since 1960 is the result of anthropogenic CO2 “80 by 50” would result in a net reduction of the globally averaged temperature of ~0.2°C. We know for a fact that CO2 did not cause all of that warming; so the reduction would be far less than 0.2°C. We also know that the range of current global temperature estimates varies by 0.35°C. So the maximum potential reduction in temperature is less than half of the margin of error in estimating a global temperature.

    If the IPCC and the Gorebots are right and we adopt “80 by 50”, we will spend ~$40 trillion to alter the Earth’s climate by an immeasurably small amount. If the IPCC and the Gorebots are wrong and we adopt “80 by 50”, we will spend ~$40 trillion dollars and kill a couple of billion people because agricultural output will decline due to modest cooling over the next couple of decades and we will be unable to compensate for the effects of the cooling climate because we are too busy throwing away money in a fight against global warming.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    i easily love China and am happy with being chinese language yet i think of that china has various themes it desires to handle before that is variety one. as an occasion, the hollow between the undesirable and the prosperous is in basic terms too super, plus china desires to pass over its rules slightly extra thoroughl. and its human rights. After it types those out, i think of China often is the superpower

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    "It's also time for "who fear AGW is destroying the planet to" stop driving cars, flying on airplanes, heating and cooling their homes, using electricity or partaking in any technology more advanced that that of the mid-Pleistocene."

    You mean that cavemen had photovoltaic cells, wind turbines and fast breeder reactors.

    "Unfortunately China is biggest creditor of United States, so they wouldn't allow it to happen."

    How much of that debt was due to a certain unnecessary war which was also endorsed by Fox new.. Because people were afraid of one petty dictator, who even if he had those bombs we thought we had and even if he had done something stupid with them, we could have taken care of him with one H-bomb, the people who are the real threat have penetrated America's soft underbelly. Thanks, Fox news.

    Regarding the question, the best way to convince China to reduce its emissions is to reduce our emissions whether China does so or not. Yes, China has to reduce its emissions to save the planet, but if we were to show them the benefits of the new economy, and how efficient it would be , they would embrace it. Denialist like to pretend that realists missed the biology lecture on photosynthesis because they fear the unknown. Once they see the new economy, China will have no such fear.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    china is also leading in renewable energy and improving their energy efficiency more rapidly than any other country. amazing thing a dictatorship, you can turn the damn thing on a sixpence when you need to, while our democracies are arguing and comittee-ing and frittering the time away.

    the engineers who run the place say 'make it so' and the starship china heads off on a new course at warp speed.

  • 1 decade ago

    Unfortunately China is biggest creditor of United States, so they wouldn't allow it to happen.

  • .
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    You shouldn't just be blaming countries if you don' even know for sure idiot. Quit pointing fingers.

  • Rio
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    We gave them the means, now we can blame.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Those that truly fear AGW are already living in caves and not buying any products.

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