4 ms·

The China Effect - Can the world survive China's rush to emulate the American way of life?

10 points by nickb 19y ago

icky 19y ago
End of world predicted: fate of Internet uncertain.
Tichy 19y ago
Oh dear...
henning 19y ago
I automatically ignore all rense.com content, regardless of its content. There are other ways to be open to new points of view than to listen to the incoherent rambling of conspiracy theorists. These are the same people who were stockpiling ammunition and food because they thought the world was going to end when the Y2K bug took effect on January 1, 2000.
gojomo 19y ago
On the bright side: according to the below article, if long-term trends of energy efficiency continue, "[b]y 2100, with a world population of 10 billion people, everyone can be living at the current European standard of living and yet expending half the energy we are using today." http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12871/ http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12871/ (It's old -- 2002 -- but I think I'll submit it as a story link just as an antidote to some of the developing-world pessimism that's been surging of late.)
gscott 19y ago
I was reading an article that they have a real problem with toilet paper. As more people are using toilet paper in China it is wiping out the trees (1.3 billion people all wiping) so they are encouraging people to not start using toilet paper if they are not doing so already. They definitely have scaling issues, they can't even scale up toilet paper usage.
- daniel-cussen 19y ago
  I wish I could upvote that four times.
- davidw 19y ago
  "You can't spare a square?"
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
- eru 19y ago
  And just think of all the water they will wast in flushing: "The world is divided into two categories of people: those who shit in drinking water and those who don't. " (http://weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_2.html http://weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_2.html)
net_efekt 19y ago
When resources become scarce, the prices will go up, forcing people to change their habbits. Problem solved. We're all in the same boat - if anything, we're the ones who started the whole consumption frenzie, so we should be the first to show a different way of life.
ivankirigin 19y ago
I love the taste of fresh produce. It rocks. I hate the smug around organics. The fact is that it takes an order of magnitude more land to produce the same output. Forget cars, TVs, and McMansions. China and the rest of the world couldn't hope to live the purported ideal without destroying a great deal of natural habitats.
ivankirigin 19y ago
I read a statistic from around 2002 that China consumed slightly more coal than the US, while polluting twice as much and generating half as much electricity. You needn't be an environmentalist to be concerned with such numbers. You also don't have to be an optimist to expect this to get better. More wealth will mean more efficiency and less pollution. More wealth dispersed throughout the population will mean greater demand by people to take action against already horrible air pollution, and other damage. But the pattern is familiar, and we only point out China because of its size. Production will move to poorer countries, and they will outsource their pollution generation just as we have.

10 points by nickb 19y ago

icky 19y ago

End of world predicted: fate of Internet uncertain.

Tichy 19y ago

Oh dear...

henning 19y ago

I automatically ignore all rense.com content, regardless of its content. There are other ways to be open to new points of view than to listen to the incoherent rambling of conspiracy theorists. These are the same people who were stockpiling ammunition and food because they thought the world was going to end when the Y2K bug took effect on January 1, 2000.

gojomo 19y ago

On the bright side: according to the below article, if long-term trends of energy efficiency continue, "[b]y 2100, with a world population of 10 billion people, everyone can be living at the current European standard of living and yet expending half the energy we are using today." http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12871/ http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/12871/ (It's old -- 2002 -- but I think I'll submit it as a story link just as an antidote to some of the developing-world pessimism that's been surging of late.)

gscott 19y ago

I was reading an article that they have a real problem with toilet paper. As more people are using toilet paper in China it is wiping out the trees (1.3 billion people all wiping) so they are encouraging people to not start using toilet paper if they are not doing so already. They definitely have scaling issues, they can't even scale up toilet paper usage.

daniel-cussen 19y ago
I wish I could upvote that four times.
davidw 19y ago
"You can't spare a square?"
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
eru 19y ago
And just think of all the water they will wast in flushing: "The world is divided into two categories of people: those who shit in drinking water and those who don't. " (http://weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_2.html http://weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_2.html)

net_efekt 19y ago

When resources become scarce, the prices will go up, forcing people to change their habbits. Problem solved. We're all in the same boat - if anything, we're the ones who started the whole consumption frenzie, so we should be the first to show a different way of life.

ivankirigin 19y ago

I love the taste of fresh produce. It rocks. I hate the smug around organics. The fact is that it takes an order of magnitude more land to produce the same output. Forget cars, TVs, and McMansions. China and the rest of the world couldn't hope to live the purported ideal without destroying a great deal of natural habitats.

ivankirigin 19y ago

I read a statistic from around 2002 that China consumed slightly more coal than the US, while polluting twice as much and generating half as much electricity. You needn't be an environmentalist to be concerned with such numbers. You also don't have to be an optimist to expect this to get better. More wealth will mean more efficiency and less pollution. More wealth dispersed throughout the population will mean greater demand by people to take action against already horrible air pollution, and other damage. But the pattern is familiar, and we only point out China because of its size. Production will move to poorer countries, and they will outsource their pollution generation just as we have.