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How do we convince China and India to lessen their CO2 production in any meaningful way?
by bitlax 7y ago
How do we convince China and India to lessen their CO2 production in any meaningful way?
- pstuart 7y agoLead by example and institute policies that strongly support taking aggressive action. This won't happen while Trump is in office, unfortunately.
- bitlax 7y agoWell I'll take that bet. Climate activists have advocated that precisely the opposite should happen: that they should maintain or even increase their growth since they are developing economies.
- pstuart 7y agoYou're betting that Trump is going to push policies that address climate change? The same individual who says that climate change is a hoax? Who praises clean coal and says that wind turbines cause cancer?
- bitlax 7y agoNo, I'm betting that changes in U.S. production will have little to no impact on inspiring China and India to decrease their emissions.
- pstuart 7y agoMy point was that our current approach leads to zero impact on other nations. How can we even ask of others when we can't do the needful ourselves.
- jellicle 7y agoClimate activists have made the much more subtle point that it is unjust to expect nations which have never industrialized not to industrialize so that rich industrial nations can run their air conditioners with the doors open and their SUVs idling.
- bitlax 7y agoRight. In the case of China, they missed the boat on modernization when they instituted communism. Now the world can't afford their emissions.
- nabla9 7y agoIndia and China are not against fighting climate change together. What they need is fairness. CO2-equivivalents per capita is the fair measure stick (maybe adjusted to imported and exported co2eq) Government level climate skepticism is mainly problem in Anglo-Saxon countries. China and India are enemies and competitors but they work together in energy sector. They are trying to push renewables and nuclear. It's just that their energy needs exceed the progress in these fields. They build Nuclear as fast as they can, It's just hard to build them in schedule with conventional reactors. Bill Gates had experimental nuclear power plant planned and ready to go in China. It had green light from both governments. Then came Trump and it was forbidden. 5-year setback when there is no time to waste. Any sane government would have granted exception for the project.
- huffmsa 7y agoSkepticism of the government is part of the culture. Don't trust bureaucrats further than the rope you need to hang them
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- moultano 7y agoYou invest heavily in deploying technologies so that they become cheaper, and either win on cost alone or at least become an easy political choice to switch to. Ramez Naam talks about this in much more detail here: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/15/how-to-decarbonize-america-and-the-world/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/15/how-to-decarbonize-america...
- bduerst 7y agoChina is the largest green energy producer in the world, doubling the output of the U.S.
- scottlocklin 7y agoChyeah sure bro. Ever actually been there? https://www.google.com/search?q=china+smog&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie36eUsZ3mAhVN6RoKHXeYAKoQ_AUoAXoECBAQAw&cshid=1575510301165585&biw=1517&bih=683 https://www.google.com/search?q=china+smog&source=lnms&tbm=i...
- bduerst 7y agoYes, I have. Have you? Also: https://www.google.com/search?q=China+is+the+largest+green+energy+producer+in+the+world https://www.google.com/search?q=China+is+the+largest+green+e...
- scottlocklin 7y agoYes I was there; it was a toxic smog hellscape, and nobody cares if they're the "largest green..." whatever marketing bilge you've dug up. They're also the largest carbon dioxide producers, the largest polluters of oceans with plastic, and the most responsible for slaughter of rare megafauna for placebo dong pills.