> China was able to get a leg up through dirty coal and oil operations, but there are consequences to this. Some of their cities are today near uninhabitable, s

> China was able to get a leg up through dirty coal and oil operations, but there are consequences to this. Some of their cities are today near uninhabitable, some are just unbearably smoggy. There is some interesting reading regarding China's "green GDP" accounting project. Here is one recent account: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/4/9/china/chinas-green-gdp-dream-could-become-reality http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/4/9/china/c... Here is my brief summary: 1. pick a relatively simple yet crude (or perhaps misguided) metric of progress - GDP 2. reward / punish regional leaders for their ability to maximise this metric 3. spend effort creating a more accurate metric of progress - "green GDP" - that accounts for the costs of pollution 4. trial the new metric and observe that the more accurate indication of progress reveals much less progress than the original metric - perhaps negative progress in some cases! 5. regional leaders are deeply resistant to introduction of the this new, more accurate metric, as it shows they have not actually being doing a great job 6. adoption of the new accurate metric fails for political reasons, as it is very unpopular! You have to laugh, otherwise you might cry. The article above ends with a few positive notes, so there may be some positive change looming in future! I personally think there is more potential for China to make dramatic, sweeping positive changes than certain other countries (e.g. Australia, where I live).