| I don't think it is just greewashing, although it may be partly that. The Chinese are in a difficult position. They can't stand pat, they can't go back, they must go "forward" into the 21st century, but they require cheap energy for that. They have horribly polluted cities and rivers, water shortages in the north and west, and creeping desertification coming from Mongolia, which may (along with their water issues) in the end be a far more insidiously destructive force than the Mongolian invaders were centuries ago. They can temporarily (i.e., for maybe 50-100 years or so) address their water problems by tapping into the melting Tibetan Plateau glaciers, but not only would that be temporary, it will stir up a hornets' nest of opposition from India and other parts of SE Asia, all of which depend on the same water sources. The Chinese and Indian "miracles" can last a few more decades, but if the GW problem with its melting glaciers and droughts isn't resolved, the lights will go out in most of Asia, and they will have enormous refugee, starvation and disease issues for decades until death reduces the population exponentially. And the governments know this. |
