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China is the only reason I’m not a climate doomer anymore.

chrisco255 1y ago
Why is that? They emit more than any other country on the planet and they are absolutely bottom tier for air quality in global rankings. https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-count...
- piva00 1y ago
  They can brute force their way out of it by sheer political will, the transformation to electrify China's traffic, the hyperscaling of PV production, the rollout of high-speed trains were all accomplished in timelines the USA won't ever see in our lifetime since it lacks any political will to do big things anymore. They are installing more solar than the rest of the world combined, other renewables as well. China doesn't have oil, they don't want to depend on oil or fossil fuels, and the CCP needs to keep some kind of social cohesion by showing off to their citizens that "things are being done". Air quality over Chinese big cities has improved massively the past 10-15 years, they will only continue doing so, it was popular. > https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-count... Well, well, well: https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country... You probably have never visited China to be able to compare how it was in the 2010s to now, right?
  - chrisco255 1y ago
    China emits 3x more than the United States and growing. It emmitted 1M more kilotons of CO2 in 2023 than in 2022. You are falling for some crazy propaganda. The U.S. emits less today than it did in 1990 despite the population being significantly larger. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenho... China doesn't care about climate change. As you mentioned, they don't have oil, so they're simply exploiting the resources they do have to generate energy in all forms: solar AND coal AND nuclear AND whatever else they can get. This is rational from a purely economic standpoint, not from a standpoint of believing that climate change is an existential crisis. https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ I don't need to visit China to understand the data. They rank 168th in air quality, absolutely rock bottom tier: https://epi.yale.edu/measure/2024/AIR https://epi.yale.edu/measure/2024/AIR
    - aaomidi 1y ago
      What China is doing is enabling the global south to leapfrog fossil fuels and jump to renewables. It's expected that China is going to plateau in emissions soon: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdd6jdm42o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdd6jdm42o Air quality is something China is actively working on and has had massive improvements: https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-battle-against-air-pollution-update https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-battle-against-air-pollution... And, measuring the emissions of China on its own is a pretty useless thing given they're the world's factory. A flattening of emissions increase is an absolutely huge deal.
    - rwyinuse 1y ago
      I wonder how the stats would look, if CO2 emissions caused by Chinese exports to America were counted as US emissions, and vice versa? Probably very different. Anyway, at least China has a government that isn't denying climate change and being ideologically hostile towards green energy. China is making real progress, America is walking backwards.
  - computerthings 1y ago
    [dead]
- aaomidi 1y ago
  Answered below in the thread. Raw emissions are a single metric, and not a very useful one at that. The first and second order derivatives are a lot more interesting here. Also, the impact they're having on the emissions of the global south.
- bamboozled 1y ago
  They make all your shit, that's why they have high emissions. They also invest heavily in renewables and nuclear (apparently).

Why is that? They emit more than any other country on the planet and they are absolutely bottom tier for air quality in global rankings. https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-count...

piva00 1y ago
They can brute force their way out of it by sheer political will, the transformation to electrify China's traffic, the hyperscaling of PV production, the rollout of high-speed trains were all accomplished in timelines the USA won't ever see in our lifetime since it lacks any political will to do big things anymore. They are installing more solar than the rest of the world combined, other renewables as well. China doesn't have oil, they don't want to depend on oil or fossil fuels, and the CCP needs to keep some kind of social cohesion by showing off to their citizens that "things are being done". Air quality over Chinese big cities has improved massively the past 10-15 years, they will only continue doing so, it was popular. > https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/coal/coal-consumption-by-count... Well, well, well: https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country/ https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country... You probably have never visited China to be able to compare how it was in the 2010s to now, right?
- chrisco255 1y ago
  China emits 3x more than the United States and growing. It emmitted 1M more kilotons of CO2 in 2023 than in 2022. You are falling for some crazy propaganda. The U.S. emits less today than it did in 1990 despite the population being significantly larger. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenho... China doesn't care about climate change. As you mentioned, they don't have oil, so they're simply exploiting the resources they do have to generate energy in all forms: solar AND coal AND nuclear AND whatever else they can get. This is rational from a purely economic standpoint, not from a standpoint of believing that climate change is an existential crisis. https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ I don't need to visit China to understand the data. They rank 168th in air quality, absolutely rock bottom tier: https://epi.yale.edu/measure/2024/AIR https://epi.yale.edu/measure/2024/AIR
  - aaomidi 1y ago
    What China is doing is enabling the global south to leapfrog fossil fuels and jump to renewables. It's expected that China is going to plateau in emissions soon: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdd6jdm42o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdd6jdm42o Air quality is something China is actively working on and has had massive improvements: https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-battle-against-air-pollution-update https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-battle-against-air-pollution... And, measuring the emissions of China on its own is a pretty useless thing given they're the world's factory. A flattening of emissions increase is an absolutely huge deal.
  - rwyinuse 1y ago
    I wonder how the stats would look, if CO2 emissions caused by Chinese exports to America were counted as US emissions, and vice versa? Probably very different. Anyway, at least China has a government that isn't denying climate change and being ideologically hostile towards green energy. China is making real progress, America is walking backwards.
- computerthings 1y ago
  [dead]
aaomidi 1y ago
Answered below in the thread. Raw emissions are a single metric, and not a very useful one at that. The first and second order derivatives are a lot more interesting here. Also, the impact they're having on the emissions of the global south.
bamboozled 1y ago
They make all your shit, that's why they have high emissions. They also invest heavily in renewables and nuclear (apparently).