Why all the heat on china about global warming?

Question

all ive heard in the last 5 years is how china was killing the earth with all its pollution. i know about the coal,oil, mining and etc. which creates geen house gases. i went to asia for 2 months, and just came back 5 days ago and found out thats its not as bad as i was made to believe, living in north america. where i live almost everyone has there own car, im almost 17. there, i know 5 family members out of 50 or so who have a car. all which were cars and fuel effient. i was in hong kong for a month, and public transportation is incredibly popular. rush hour is not as jammed like LA, which i find it really werid is that i havent heard much or any about, burning green houses gases in traffic jams, which go daily in LA and NY

Answer 1

Hong Kong, while now a part of PROC, is probably not a good indicator for the rest of the country. The pollution is so bad in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guanzhou, and Dongguan that you can see the haziness in the air in the short distance across the street. The taste of the air is acrid. Electricity in large cities frequently is interrupted, and commercial establishments have large back up generators that spew smoke during the several start up cycles each day due to the municipal power interruptions. Moreover, environmental law is just coming up to speed in China, but it is nowhere near as rigorous as the US. They are making progress, but their demand is growing much greater than their pollution prevention regulations and technology. In the US, we see the great growth of energy use in China, and it is obvious that they are not only the greater polluters than the US, but their growth bodes a horrible threat to environmental health and well being.

Sure, the US (and other countries) grew strong on cheap energy, but that was 10 - 70 years ago. Here's the thing: Our growth took place before and while pollution and global warming became great issues, and China's (and India's) growth and use is much greater when pollution, global warming, and energy consumption are not future problems, but are at a critical mass.

Consider this: There is a 5 mile long road with a brick wall at the end of it. There is a safe speed to drive that road, but before anybody drives it, nobody knows what that safe speed is. The US is the first to drive it, and goes 50 miles an hour. As we progress down the road, we realize the safe speed should have been much lower. Not only did we drive too fast for conditions, we are having a hard time slowing down as we approach the wall. China, on the other hand, starts far behind the US. After 4 miles, they are going 100 miles an hour, and not only do they not have any brakes, their accelerator pedal is stuck to the floor. You can say shame on the US all you want, and you may well be right. But China's mud is what is going to hit the fan.

Answer 2

It's because China has so many people, is developing very rapidly, and is building a lot of coal burning power plants to meet their increasing energy needs.  Coal power is one of the biggest contributors to global warming.

However, I agree that it's not fair to pin the blame on China.  While China's total CO2 emissions recently passed the US for the most by any country, the US is far worse than China in terms of per person emissions.  On top of that, the US became a wealthy country by burning fossil fuels.  Now China is doing the same thing and suddenly we're saying they can't do that.  It's really hypocritical.

What the US and other developed countries need to do is take responsibility for our own emissions.  Once we reduce our emissions, developing countries like China and India will follow suit.  But we can't just put all the blame on them when we created most of the mess.

Answer 3

Honestly, because China is a major polluter.

Sure, public transportation may be packed. . . but so are the roads getting to be.  They have a LOT of people, and more of them are starting to be able to afford cars.  Once everyone gets this car they want -- hello, all the people in cool countries have them! -- then we're in trouble.

The developing world also doesn't have nearly the emissions standards that large cities in the US do.  There seems to be a lot more focus on development to catch up with those of us in the first world, and environmental protection sometimes goes by the wayside for now in the interest of advancement.  The environment is only really something you worry about when your citizens are happy and prosperous -- it's really a luxury item if you're focused on survival.

When you put a lot of people into a very small space, they're going to use a lot of resources and produce a lot of waste per unit area relative to even urban areas of major U.S. cities.  China isn't exactly a small country in terms of landmass, either.

Answer 4

While China's total CO2 emissions recently passed the US for the most by any country, the US is far worse than China in terms of per person emissions according to the data available from the Chinese government. The problem is that the data is grossly distorted because local officials don't like to look bad, so they lie, a lot!

What the US and other developed countries need to do is take responsibility for our own emissions. Once we reduce our emissions, developing countries like China and India will follow suit. This is a joke of course, the Chinese will only pay lip service to the environment and the bottom line is to make money, the environment is America's problem, let them worry about it.

Right now the Chinese people are consuming 60% more fuel per vehicle than in America, 200% more than in Japan. The average freight truck in China gets less than 4 MPG, in the USA that number is over 11 mpg. The average use of home heating fuel in China is 220% higher than in America, costs for air conditioning are also 2X because of little or no insulation, poor designs, and bad quality buildings. China's rivers are unusable for drinking water, the water in Shanghai is so putrid that you are guaranteed a case of Montezuma's revenge with the smallest sip of tap water any where in the city. No city in China has drinking water from the tap. Skin diseases are rampant throughout the country due to the bacteria and pollutants in the water. Cancer is so wide spread that in one city alone, the rate of death by cancer of the sinus is 24% of the city population. The pollution in most cities is so bad that one cannot see more than 1 or 2 km through the haze and mist. In the winter the soot from the coal fired heating plants coats everything with a layer of black grime overnight. China's back country is dotted by abandoned factories with mountains of contaminated waste left behind and no plan or desire to clean it up.

In China it is every man for themselves, the laws do not apply to me, and it is someone else's problem.

Answer 5

If you have been to China, you will know that there is very visible air pollution from their rapidly expanding use of fossil fuels without the emmision controls used in western countries. The coughing and burning eyes, remind me of LA in the early 60's!

If you believe air pollution is the cause of GW, you should zero in on China.