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The technical education of China's unaccountable governing elite has not prevented them from causing the greatest environmental catastrophe in living memory, no

The technical education of China's unaccountable governing elite has not prevented them from causing the greatest environmental catastrophe in living memory, nor does it guarantee that they will be at all motivated to clean up the mess. China's leaders may be engineers, but they are also an unaccountable elite whose primary goal is and continues to be their own aggrandizement and enrichment. Who do you think causes environmental damage in the US? Populist governors leading prayer meetings or the technical and economic elites who actually build, own, and operate polluting entities? Mock the U.S. political system all you like, but it contains mechanisms that allowed popular pressure to produce a tremendous environmental turnaround and a raft of effective environmental legislation. That China's political system will do the same is by no means guaranteed.

geebee 14y ago
I'm going to guess that it was my statement about praying for rain that caused you to feel I was mocking the US political system. I actually intended to mock a US politician who mocked the political system. Which wasn't a good idea, I'm a little disappointed with myself for doing that. It's not helpful at all in a discussion, but since it's out there, I may as well explain. In this specific case, I think there probably is an alliance between this particular politician and the business interests that pollute and who would like to dismantle the political mechanisms you mentioned. My biggest problem with the "prayer for rain" was that it came from someone who tends to mock the US political system (though he was unable to specify the third govt agency he would like to replace, he did reassure us that he didn't want to eliminate the EPA, he just wanted it "rebuilt", and I can only imagine who he'd put on that panel). He also rejected the conclusions of the vast majority of the scientific community about what might be causing and/or exacerbating chronic droughts.

geebee 14y ago

I'm going to guess that it was my statement about praying for rain that caused you to feel I was mocking the US political system. I actually intended to mock a US politician who mocked the political system. Which wasn't a good idea, I'm a little disappointed with myself for doing that. It's not helpful at all in a discussion, but since it's out there, I may as well explain. In this specific case, I think there probably is an alliance between this particular politician and the business interests that pollute and who would like to dismantle the political mechanisms you mentioned. My biggest problem with the "prayer for rain" was that it came from someone who tends to mock the US political system (though he was unable to specify the third govt agency he would like to replace, he did reassure us that he didn't want to eliminate the EPA, he just wanted it "rebuilt", and I can only imagine who he'd put on that panel). He also rejected the conclusions of the vast majority of the scientific community about what might be causing and/or exacerbating chronic droughts.