Yesterday, scientists announced that China has overtaken the US as the world’s #1 producer of CO2 emissions. Experts have predicted that this would happen for quite some time, but what no one predicted was just how soon it would happen…as in, like, yesterday.
This is terrible news for China- whose attempts at “Disney-fication” in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been foiled repeatedly by The Truth. This is also terrible news for the US- a country obsessed with being number one. Our fall to #2 signifies not only our definitive deposition as the world’s leader in manufacturing but an alarming lack of focus on maintaining current levels of asshole-dom. What’s next? Will parents in China be telling their children (whoops- child) to finish all their lo-mien because there are starving children in West Virginia?
Mostly, it spells disaster for Space Ship: Earth. China holds the title of the world’s worst polluter and has managed to do it while still:
- Maintaining the one child per couple rule
- Going to the bathroom in holes in the ground
- Riding mopeds/bicycles/rickshaws everywhere
Can you imagine what will happen to the planet when China actually has twins, toilets and Toyota Tundra’s? How can the US, in good conscience, ask China to do its part when we clearly have not done ours when it comes to the environment? Our industrial revolution came at a time when we were able to make machines that polluted, but were unable to measure and/or were unaware of the effects of many of them. Ignorance is bliss- bliss and cash, turns out. Now that China’s at the threshold of modernity, are we pulling the Oriental rug out from under them? Clearly something must be done- by the world and by China- to curb China’s pollution. But it is imperative that the US and the rest of the world lead the way before we can ask more of China.
On a selfish note- oil is sooooooo 20th Century. The only way the US can stay on top and avoid the flaming death spiral that has befallen so many other great powers is to get ahead of the curve now. And we have got to figure this out quickly because in a few more years, the world will be 10 degrees hotter, Florida will be underwater and those little trinkets China makes that we’ve all becomes so fond of will become self-aware and destroy us.
0 comments:
Post a Comment