China opens a coal fired power station every week November 12, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment , trackbackThere’s a perfect excuse in Britain to ignore climate change, and keep on living as if there were no tomorrow, and that’s the way that China opens a coal fired power station every week.
But, if you use that excuse, consider this. China has, in the last twenty years, turned from a backward, poverty ridden nation, to a powerhouse economy. It has done that without worrying about planning regulations, human rights or any of the other, deeply desirable, ideas that may slow the West’s ability to respond to the need to reduce carbon. Its geography means that it may suffer more than Britain will, with encroaching deserts and sea level rise threatening delta and coastal cities. Its bright youth study engineering and science.
The first hydrogen refueling plant has opened in Beijing, and will be used for fueling a hydrogen vehicle fleet for the 2008 Olympics.
If China, its government and power brokers, decide that they will reduce their own carbon emissions, and perhaps use their economic power to encourage others to do so, they will do it, and quickly.
It is complacent, and somehow patronising, to assume that China will fail to recognise the problems its industrial revolution and economic boom are causing and, having recognised them, will fail to deal with them. We, who have had 200 years of industrialisation, need to look to our own dirty back yard now, before we are passed by in this as well.
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Hello fellow Green Blogger,
Over at http://www.environmentdebate.blogspot.com we have a poll running that we would like you to take part in if you wish.
The question runs; ‘What do you think is the best way to tackle climate change?
Hope you have time to give your views on this very important issue.
It’s a shame that so much of the ‘green’ movement comes across as anti ‘business’. The only real hope for reducing greenhouse gas lies with large-scale industrial solutions (such as turning North Sea oil rigs into pumps to extract CO2 from the atmosphere) and in the research and development being done by companies most of which would never appear in a ‘green’ investor’s portfolio. Clean coal technology, for example, has huge potential but no government will ever be able fund its development. There are major opportunities here for British and western European companies to lead the field across the globe…
The problem is priorities and credibility, China are scheduled to build 554 coal fired boilers at a rate on one per week , they also currently have seam fires allowed to remain burning giving off high level of carbon dioxide . If China builds the power stations they alone will give off the level of carbon dioxide equivalent to all the cars in the USA !!!!!!!!!!!!. If they continue it is expected that the “danger point” of 400 parts per million will be reached and it is at this point that scientists predict “dangerous changes to the climate”.
Unless the evolving global economies (eg China) find alternatives the rest of us are just “pi……ing in the wind” .
Is it no wonder people are cynics about climate change when in reality it doesn’t matter a jot………… , if China only continue to build their power stations at the scheduled rate per year what we do here in the UK is meaningless . We have to focus on the priorities, the high carbon dioxide ommissions .