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You're making an odd, apples-to-oranges comparison. China doesn't use coal for energy, only free market countries? China burns more coal than the US an their ai

You're making an odd, apples-to-oranges comparison. China doesn't use coal for energy, only free market countries? China burns more coal than the US an their air quality is far worse. While it's a shame the US doesn't have a decent rail network, thousands of miles of high-speed rail in China are unsupported by ridership and is riddled with safety problems. Similar to their situation with unoccupied apartments: too expensive for most people, and riddled with safety problems (e.g. concrete made from sea sand). China is a great example of how authoritarian countries can produce stats that look good on paper (km of high-speed rail, number of houses), but when you look behind the curtain it's often crap. It's a house of cards to keep that 8% GDP growth on paper. But on the ground there are thousands of high-rise apartments with corroding rebar.

arcticbull 4y ago
> You're making an odd, apples-to-oranges comparison. China doesn't use coal for energy, only free market countries? China burns more coal than the US an their air quality is far worse. China is building 150 new nuclear power plants in the next 15 years (more than the entire rest of the world has built in the last 35 years) [1] and is adding solar capacity faster than anyone on earth, going from 0.1GW in 2007 to 307GW in 2021. [2] > While it's a shame the US doesn't have a decent rail network, thousands of miles of high-speed rail in China are unsupported by ridership and is riddled with safety problems. For now. Safety problems will be resolved and people will move to live alongside the rail lines, which is a chicken-egg problem the US refuses to solve. It starts to look a whole lot better 10 or 20 years down the line. [edit] @elosius: They've more than tripled nuclear generation in China since 2014, going from 100TWh/yr to 350TWh/yr - from 1% of power to 5% of power. Also, they've made huge strides in terms of air quality. Stop looking backwards, and start looking forwards. Air quality improvements will follow. [3] [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China [3] https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/from-airpocalypse-to-olympic-blue-chinas-air-quality-transformation/ https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/from-airpocalypse-to-olympic-...
- eloisius 4y ago
  "Planning to in the next 15 years" doesn't speak to the current reality, the one wherein the US has a much more diversified portfolio of energy production, and far better air quality.
  - actually_a_dog 4y ago
    China also started industrializing many decades after the US.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
EdwardDiego 4y ago
Slight correction - I think sea sand is okay in concrete, it's the desert sand that's no good, too rounded. But there's a lot of desert sand in China.
- eloisius 4y ago
  You're also correct, but sea sand contains salt, which is corrosive to the steel reinforcement bars and reactive with other minerals. Such concrete fails catastrophically.

arcticbull 4y ago

> You're making an odd, apples-to-oranges comparison. China doesn't use coal for energy, only free market countries? China burns more coal than the US an their air quality is far worse. China is building 150 new nuclear power plants in the next 15 years (more than the entire rest of the world has built in the last 35 years) [1] and is adding solar capacity faster than anyone on earth, going from 0.1GW in 2007 to 307GW in 2021. [2] > While it's a shame the US doesn't have a decent rail network, thousands of miles of high-speed rail in China are unsupported by ridership and is riddled with safety problems. For now. Safety problems will be resolved and people will move to live alongside the rail lines, which is a chicken-egg problem the US refuses to solve. It starts to look a whole lot better 10 or 20 years down the line. [edit] @elosius: They've more than tripled nuclear generation in China since 2014, going from 100TWh/yr to 350TWh/yr - from 1% of power to 5% of power. Also, they've made huge strides in terms of air quality. Stop looking backwards, and start looking forwards. Air quality improvements will follow. [3] [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_China [3] https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/from-airpocalypse-to-olympic-blue-chinas-air-quality-transformation/ https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/from-airpocalypse-to-olympic-...

eloisius 4y ago
"Planning to in the next 15 years" doesn't speak to the current reality, the one wherein the US has a much more diversified portfolio of energy production, and far better air quality.
- actually_a_dog 4y ago
  China also started industrializing many decades after the US.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

EdwardDiego 4y ago

Slight correction - I think sea sand is okay in concrete, it's the desert sand that's no good, too rounded. But there's a lot of desert sand in China.

eloisius 4y ago
You're also correct, but sea sand contains salt, which is corrosive to the steel reinforcement bars and reactive with other minerals. Such concrete fails catastrophically.