>energy is available through many means Even a wealthy economy like the US still draws almost half of its electricity from coal [1]. If Americans couldn't affo

>energy is available through many means Even a wealthy economy like the US still draws almost half of its electricity from coal [1]. If Americans couldn't afford to switch to solar already, how are the Chinese supposed to? >the Chinese pay the externalities just as we all do And so did the US. The first (very weak) Clean Air Act was not passed until 1963 [2], at which point the economy was already very energy intensive, very wealthy, and could afford to take an economic hit by implementing more stringent environmental regulations. The holier-than-thou crowd expects China to hobble itself with environmental regulations in advance of the US, while developing an economy that is still decades behind. All this preaching is of course done from countries that have gone through centuries of unrestricted industrial development, and while taking full advantage of the benefits thereof. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_power_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_power_in_the_United_States [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_(United_States) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_(United_States)