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Aren’t they bringing on incredible amounts of solar we could only dream about? Edit: for the downvoters https://gemini.google.com/app/6da2be1502b764f1 https:/

Aren’t they bringing on incredible amounts of solar we could only dream about? Edit: for the downvoters https://gemini.google.com/app/6da2be1502b764f1 https://gemini.google.com/app/6da2be1502b764f1

kulahan 1y ago
They're building an insane amount of nuclear. It's the only thing with a hope in a country where a "small" city has like 6 million people.
- pinkgolem 1y ago
  Are they? They build 10x more solar power (total numbers compared, in percentages solar nearly tripled since 2021, nuclear had a 10% increase) That seems more like a modest increase. Honestly solar seems to have an exponential growth, nuclear linear at best. Numbers from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China
munk-a 1y ago
And nuclear power - they have a large carbon deficit to make up so you shouldn't think of them as a green economy by any measure but... I think their strongest advantage is that there is a strong environmental pressure within the country and (while industrialists will be industrialists) there is no faction or movement within China that is dedicated to an anti-environmental agenda. There's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of friction, corruption and economic pressures constraining that work but there seems to be a genuine desire to do that work.
- Mistletoe 1y ago
  I wonder what kind of forest China is making? I was watching a really fascinating PBS documentary on Kanopy and it was talking about a lot of the planting efforts haven't been very good worldwide because planting a monoculture of trees doesn't do much and an old forest with tons of diversity stores twice as much carbon or more, which I thought was neat. So protecting existing forests is much better from a climate change standpoint. But either way, planting trees is better than nothing. https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/15418989 https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/15418989
  - chrisweekly 1y ago
    Given the goal is to introduce trees to prevent desertification, in this case the relative benefits of old growth are irrelevant.

Aren’t they bringing on incredible amounts of solar we could only dream about? Edit: for the downvoters https://gemini.google.com/app/6da2be1502b764f1 https://gemini.google.com/app/6da2be1502b764f1

kulahan 1y ago

They're building an insane amount of nuclear. It's the only thing with a hope in a country where a "small" city has like 6 million people.

pinkgolem 1y ago
Are they? They build 10x more solar power (total numbers compared, in percentages solar nearly tripled since 2021, nuclear had a 10% increase) That seems more like a modest increase. Honestly solar seems to have an exponential growth, nuclear linear at best. Numbers from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China

munk-a 1y ago

And nuclear power - they have a large carbon deficit to make up so you shouldn't think of them as a green economy by any measure but... I think their strongest advantage is that there is a strong environmental pressure within the country and (while industrialists will be industrialists) there is no faction or movement within China that is dedicated to an anti-environmental agenda. There's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of friction, corruption and economic pressures constraining that work but there seems to be a genuine desire to do that work.

Mistletoe 1y ago
I wonder what kind of forest China is making? I was watching a really fascinating PBS documentary on Kanopy and it was talking about a lot of the planting efforts haven't been very good worldwide because planting a monoculture of trees doesn't do much and an old forest with tons of diversity stores twice as much carbon or more, which I thought was neat. So protecting existing forests is much better from a climate change standpoint. But either way, planting trees is better than nothing. https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/15418989 https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/15418989
- chrisweekly 1y ago
  Given the goal is to introduce trees to prevent desertification, in this case the relative benefits of old growth are irrelevant.