Again there isn’t much time for blogging today, but in a strange change of circumstance, China, the regionally capitalist country which saved us all from Copenhagen, the same country which is building a coal plant every two weeks, is now calling for international cooperation on climate change. In recent weeks we’ve seen local shutdowns of powerplants in China, in an alleged effort to reduce impact on climate.
Today, China is being congratulated for it’s leadership role in climate. Of course, like all politicians, while shaking hands, you have to watch the other hand.
Contrast this:
China calls for int’l cooperation in tackling climate change
Figueres applauded China’s efforts in tackling climate change, and spoke highly of the country’s constructive role in the international negotiation process.
with:
The People’s Republic of China is the largest consumer of coal in the world,[1]
and
China’s coal mining industry is the deadliest in the world and has the world’s worst safety record[5]
Capitalism is only an east coast sideshow there still. The coal mines are state run. Look at what happens to socialism when personal property ownership is allowed.
SEZ is ‘special economic zone’ and it’s code for you can have your own business, and keep some of the profit. Now that is one hell of a hockey stick. Shenzhen SEZ is right directly across the border from Hong Kong, it is very different though. Very wealthy and successful, but different.
Today in some areas of China, you can keep quite a bit of profit, in Hong Kong, Business can keep it all… 100%. .
Ever seen Hong Kong? I have, many times. Sony, Panasonic and even Wall Mart have headquarters here.
So the common excuses in Europe for the US success are WWII, excess resources, excess land, easy energy from coal, some odd political policy that made the US the single most successful technological and economic country on earth – in the past. What about Hong Kong, do you all think this is a fluke of war? Perhaps they just had more resources? Perhaps it was the ‘new deal’ that made it all work? What is rarely said in pop culture is maybe, just maybe, our founding fathers had the right idea.
Ever seen a plot of GHCN temperature stations across the earth in the 1900’s? Guess where most were? The waste off a capitalist society makes the poor rich enough to watch big screen TV’s, yet we’re preached to about the discrepancies between wealth and poor.So I suppose the number of temperature stations – even covering the desert – in the US was just an accident too. You can see the border with Mexico perfectly. Is an unmarked imaginary border really to blame for the lack of money to measure temperature? Or is it something else? Certainly Europe led the world culturually and technically to nearly this point but something happened.
So now we’re saying that China, which annexed Hong Kong is the bastion of global warming hope?
People have to be nuts not to realize that taxes limit business, they have to be equally nuts not to realize that China ain’t going to limit much business in the near future. It’s a study of oxymoron to say that China is the way to the future of ‘clean energy’ and America is not. They have embraced capitalism on their coasts. They do have some very very socialist laws, however, they are not being enforced. It’s nearly 100% unbridled capitalism which is currently manufacturing for the world and paying a government which currently officially opposes the concept. Cheap labor is part of it, but their ‘cheap labor’ is 30 times greater than the non SEZ citizens make on average. The population needs permits to go to work in the city.
In the US, as we throttle back our own success, we see the strain in all govt. budgets, energy supply, business, job rates, yet in the news, nobody notices what we are doing. Rationing energy instead of building new coal or nuclear plants, taxing companies out of business, forcing people to move business overseas by ridiculous environmental policies which simply move the damage to places without control of any aspect of the emissions.
Many Americans are too ignorant to realize that the ‘wealthiest’ Americans making over 250,000 USD/year are the small business owners. Small business profits are added to the owners tax returns. I’ve personally paid more taxes than cash I’ve taken home in some years. The other money is invested in invetory, people, machines etc.. Now if we raise taxes on these ‘wealthy’ people, what will that do to jobs. hmm… tough question.
It’s like whatever you do, never, never, never, recognize what makes our system of living work.
Crazy world.
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the Air Vent 
Oxymoron – I was, and still am in many ways, but…
I believe (and still do) in the greater good, and (used to think) the Left was the way to achieve this.
Quack, Quack, oooooooooooops..
That PRC Graph was it made by Mannian statistics? It sure has a nice hockey stick shape. 🙂
Free the people, free the money, and you will get the technology you need to move away from fossil fuel far sooner than if we continue to pursue limitation policy of the left.
I’m always reluctant to post on this issue because the Western prejudice against the Chinese coal mining industry, even from our esteemed website host here, is concrete-thick and almost impenetrable. Despite my reluctance, however, once more unto the breach …
“China’s coal mining industry is the deadliest in the world and has the world’s worst safety record” and then we have a Wiki link as evidence (ohmigod !!)
First, such comments and cherry-picked data refer to underground mining, which is inherently more difficult than open cut operations in any country, but such base parameters are never stated
Second, using even the Wiki figures on the highest end of fatalities, the death-by-accident rate in Chines underground mines is less then 0.4% pa of the total workforce. This is still far too high of course but a lot less “horrific” than cherry-picked raw figures quoted without any proportionality. It is about 0.5 of an order of magnitude higher than say, the US, Aus, Canada etc. The prejudice here is buttressed by a total inability to understand what a population of 1.4bn actually means. To try for a perspective US citizens may understand, China and the US have roughly the same geographical areas but the US has less than 20% of the Chinese population – in other words, within the same geographical area, there are 5x more Chinese people than in the US. Feeding and energising them is quite a challenge
Third, historically, the Chinese coal mining industry comprises many, many thousands of colloquially-named “small mines”. These are the source of the industrial injuries and deaths. The CP Central Govt is making quite impressive (and very costly) efforts to eradicate these mines – takeover by State-run larger complexes; systematic closure; hard prosecution of owners and managers following industrial incidents. This is certainly a slow enough process, but it is occurring systematically. Little known in the West, but very much known in China, is the legislated advent of “mine jails”: this means that following conviction for negligent management, people in the statutory positions of Mine Manager, Chief Engineer and Safety Officer (all these positions are appointed by local CP government committees) receive very lengthy jail sentences in “small mines” – they have to work like crazy just to stay alive, trying to improve safety. Poetic justice …
Fourth, although the Chinese industry did not invent them, the development of underground longwall chocks for extraction in thick seams (known as Top Coal Caving) has proceeded best in China, with increasingly successful export of the concept and design. These chocks contribute much to efficiency, safety and production
Fifth, and this is ananthema to the West, central Safety Centres in coal mining districts are being systematically developed and upgraded. Such Centres are being fibre-connected to seam gas monitors in underground operations and roadway gas concentrations monitored in real time. If an operation exceeds the statutory gas concentration (generally CH4 > 0.4%) more than twice in one week, the operation is summarily closed until an official investigation is completed. This rigor has no Western equivalent to my knowledge
Overall, the truth is that the Chinese coal mining industry is slowly but successfully overcoming it’s historical “small mine” disadvantage and pushing through stringent safety measures. The Chinese authorities are well aware of the prejudicial world eye watching. Some significant improvements in efficiency, safety and productivity have been forthcoming from this process.
More cynically, the Chinese would be very happy to have the West be “carbon constrained” while it did what works to improve its own energy output and standard of living. The danger is that its #1 customer, the US, could well self-destruct …
China isn’t just the worlds ‘largest consumer of coal’, as of 2009 they consume 46% of the worlds coal(2010 BP Statistical Energy Review). 3X US coal consumption and 10x EU coal consumption.
As the worlds largest sellers of Carbon Credits, they are quite concerned about the climate, Carbon Credits are big money.
China may be a dictatorship, but they are not idiots. Their economy is doing great, and when it comes to AGW, they want the 3rd world exemptions. That is why they are playing both sides. Cripple the west economies with Climate Control, and allow them to stomp the rest of us.
In their position, I would be doing the same thing.
The Chinese are trying to take advantage of what I call ‘A precious conceit of the Western elite’, but am usually misunderstood because ‘precious’ and ‘conceit’ are both used in archaic fashion. The BRICs chagrin over the failure of their Copenhagen shakedown was marvelously veiled with outrage over those same Western elites’ leaders trying an inside deal to the exclusion of the developing countries.
Also, I”ve wondered for awhile whether Maurice Strong is in China advising them on climate policy, or if he is there being advised of his rights.
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#7;
Well, since there are no rights there to be advised of, I pick door #1.
Thanks the article Mr.