#China now accounts for 47% of global #coal consumption, with >79% of growth in coal demand since the year 2000 attributable to the #PRC #CN—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 03, 2013
#China overtook the United States as the world's largest #energy consumer in 2011; clean air in major cities 'a rarity' tinyurl.com/cgomec7—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 03, 2013
Yes, but this planet won’t survive another industrial revolution like the old one. Unfortunately China doesn’t seem to have caught on to the idea of sustainability. The present Australian election shows that electorates seem to easily fall prey to the arguments of climate sceptics and scaremongering about higher electricity bills if green technologies are adopted, even though the country is now being roasted and flooded to record levels every year. I suppose China’s elite only think of their own interests rather than those of future generations, and so are even less likely to take meaningful action.
China is in fact a leader when it comes to renewable energy, but for the moment this seems to be little more than a thin patina on a fossil-nuclear monster.