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China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

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Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#21

Post by s5300 »

baserev wrote: post #11
jmyeet wrote: post #10

China may well have replaced the USSR as the latest bogeyman to keep attention away from whatever war crimes the US is currently supporting or committing, but all I can think about is the ~$10T spent on and millions of lives lost to the "War on Terror" and what could've been done with the money instead. I mean just look at the high speed rail transformation in 16 years [1]. China is not without its issues but neither…

China has built 30,000 miles of high speed rails it doesn't need [1], going into $1 trillion of debt and other liabilities. Just keeping up with its debt requires $25 billion annually. Incidentally, Chinese local governments are now $11 trillion in debt [2], with all provinces except Shanghai in 2023 being positive on revenues. And now there are around 4000 ghost railway stations [3] [1]: https://www.wsj.com/world/ch…

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Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#22

Post by hermitcrab »

jmyeet wrote: post #10

China may well have replaced the USSR as the latest bogeyman to keep attention away from whatever war crimes the US is currently supporting or committing, but all I can think about is the ~$10T spent on and millions of lives lost to the "War on Terror" and what could've been done with the money instead. I mean just look at the high speed rail transformation in 16 years [1]. China is not without its issues but neither…

>China is not without its issues

That is a bit of an understatement, isn't it? https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/china/ch...

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#23

Post by baserev »

jimmydoe wrote: post #20
baserev wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has built 30,000 miles of high speed rails it doesn't need [1], going into $1 trillion of debt and other liabilities. Just keeping up with its debt requires $25 billion annually. Incidentally, Chinese local governments are now $11 trillion in debt [2], with all provinces except Shanghai in 2023 being positive on revenues. And now there are around 4000 ghost railway stations [3] [1]: https://www.wsj.com/world/ch…

In WSJ article > China State Railway’s liabilities grew to a record of about $860 billion as of September Meanwhile it's about same as US military spending in one fiscal year. I'd rather wasting money on things I don't need, rather than kill others.

[flagged]

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#24

Post by just_1_comment »

abeppu wrote: post #6
bloopernova wrote: post #2

It took 46 years to create the 1,900 mile, ~3060 km green belt around the 130,350 square miles (337,600 km2) desert. The linked article doesn't say anything about negatives, but the positives seem to be very beneficial for the area. I really wish other major powers would commit to similar projects. In my opinion, communities need larger goals to strive towards, to provide a sense of continued belonging and reinvestme…

I've sometimes wondered whether arid parts of the American Southwest could, through the right kind of permaculture interventions, support more biological carbon sequestration, more plant life, drive development of richer soil etc. But I suspect if you said "we're gonna use this big section of BLM land to incrementally try to keep water in the landscape, and introduce a sequence of plant species that can increase carb…

I agree that theres no hope of such a project ever happening in the USA unless it’s on private land, and even then someone is going to object and sue to stop it for some shortsighted and probably selfish reason.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#25

Post by skybrian »

I wonder whether this is working, as far as preventing desertification goes. The project has critics. It might just the state declaring victory?

Edit: apparently it’s controversial.

Will China’s “green Great Wall” save it from encroaching sands?

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/12/05/will-chinas-green...

https://archive.is/FVimm

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#26

Post by renewiltord »

yazzku wrote: post #17
renewiltord wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the second clause. Anything after 50 years ago interferes with the environment. Even returning things to before that time interferes with the environment. That’s the cutoff date I’m afraid.

Ah, right, the 50-year cut-off makes a lot of sense, circa Exxon Mobil deciding to engage in the largest terraforming experiment done on Earth for profit despite its own knowledge of the consequences. That makes total sense; God created Exxon Mobil, and anything we do to challenge it is interfering with God's fine handiwork. Let me prepare the school curricula for next calendar year.

NEPA was passed about then and most people would prefer it stay, so yeah, it makes sense. It’s why we don’t have environmental review for I-5 but we do for new bike lanes. I-5 was already decided in the 1960s so the construction was okay. But bike lanes are today and need extensive environmental review, as any environmentalist will tell you.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#28

Post by [deleted] »

abeppu wrote: post #6
bloopernova wrote: post #2

It took 46 years to create the 1,900 mile, ~3060 km green belt around the 130,350 square miles (337,600 km2) desert. The linked article doesn't say anything about negatives, but the positives seem to be very beneficial for the area. I really wish other major powers would commit to similar projects. In my opinion, communities need larger goals to strive towards, to provide a sense of continued belonging and reinvestme…

I've sometimes wondered whether arid parts of the American Southwest could, through the right kind of permaculture interventions, support more biological carbon sequestration, more plant life, drive development of richer soil etc. But I suspect if you said "we're gonna use this big section of BLM land to incrementally try to keep water in the landscape, and introduce a sequence of plant species that can increase carb…

[deleted]

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#30

Post by baserev »

philosopher1234 wrote: post #27

Meanwhile the US uses it surpluses of wealth to do… what? Optimize ad sales to 16 year olds and fund genocide in Gaza?

Support Ukraine against invasion from Russia. Support Taiwan against invasion from China. Investing in reusable rockets, pushing humanity out into space. Supporting new technologies like augmented reality, AI, satellite internet, self driving.
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