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China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

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Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#121

Post by seanmcdirmid »

otikik wrote: post #90
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some stories I heard while living in China. A couple of decades ago farmers in china’s arid regions used to be tasked with planting trees, they would plant them upside down because they knew they didn’t have enough water to feed the trees and their crops. The Gobi was planted with trees a few times to reduce dust storms, but it takes a lot more than just planting trees, so the dust storms would always invariably retu…

> they would plant them upside down That makes no sense. It takes more effort to plant a tree upside down and not irrigating it than it takes to plant it the regular way and not irrigating it.

They didn’t want the trees to suck up limited water, but wanted to still say they planted the trees. My guess is that ground water and run off was involved, they weren’t going to irrigate it either way because they couldn’t.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#122

Post by hirsin »

toast0 wrote: post #103
otikik wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> drop them off into deep ocean where they won't decompose muc I’m sure that won’t come with any unintended consequences

Probably will spark a bubble in deep sea distressed wood salvage operations when that becomes feasible. Logs that long ago got stuck on river bottoms on the way to mills are pretty valuable now if they're in good shape.

Is that just because they're old trees, which are stronger than the fast farmed ones we get today?

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#123

Post by Aloisius »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #34
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…

> China has built 30,000 miles of high speed rails it doesn't need That's a ridiculous statement. High-speed rail is extremely heavily used in China (3 billion trips in 2023). This is like dismissing the US interstate highway system as a useless vanity project. HSR is a heavily used, central part of China's transportation infrastructure that has made getting between major Chinese cities way easier, faster and more co…

Except for a couple of lines that connect the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, most Chinese HSR lines operate below capacity and at a great loss.

The bulk of the rail built in the last decade was to distant poorer regions who simply aren't willing to pay for faster transit.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#124

Post by [deleted] »

ffsm8 wrote: post #91
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looks like China is attempting a hybrid approach. Free market with the government intervening whenever and wherever it feels like. A caveat I'd add is that the Chinese government is subjective to the party. China's accomplishments are significant but they tend to be secondary to the political wellbeing of the CCP. That wellbeing is secured though the harsh and thorough quashing of dissent. I'd criticize China but C…

> I'd criticize China but CCP's most repressive aspects seem to be finding widespread appeal here in the US. And so does Russia, which is another effective repressive dictatorship. From my perspective, they're just exceptionally adapt at pushing their propaganda abroad. Historically, the USA was the only one doing that, but it's no longer the only player. (To be clear, I meant spreading propaganda abroad. The USA is…

[deleted]

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#125

Post by throwawaymaths »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #87
throwawaymaths wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a clear majority of voters support a project or policy thing is, projects run into reality. if a majority voted to build the starship enterprise today would it make sense to do it just because a majority wanted it

Healthcare access isn't sci-fi

yes and believe it or not healthcare runs into real constraints and concerns about equity, etc.

suppose a rare disease is only well researched in a few white families. lets say, the mennonites. curing the disease is possible, but expensive. should everyone else be forced to subsidize it? what if the markers are known and parents choose to have kids anyways even though they have the markers.

does the situation change if its sickle cell anemia?

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#126

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

DanTheManPR wrote: post #113
blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #67

[flagged]

Is Chinese high speed rail infrastructure really substandard or lacking maintenance as you claim?

Yes, look up videos of recurring vibration issues. It has become bad because international suppliers cut them off due to geopolitical concerns. There is lots of censorship locally in China on this and similar topics like construction problems with property. But some of it has leaked out anyways. It’s very different from when HSR first launched there.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#127

Post by cassepipe »

jmyeet wrote: post #85
cassepipe wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S need to spend a ton to defend their "imperium" even though it is a bit different from how empires have worked in history. If it doesn't another country will take place and assume leadership of the world. The nice thing about the Pax Americana is that it is based on voluntary alliances that benefit from the relationship and more neutral third-party that are not punished for their neutrality (and thus are not a…

This smacks of "we need to commit war crimes because otherwise somebody else will commit war crimes". Theoretical atrocities are never justification for actual atrocities. The "voluntary alliances" you speak of are basically the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. Africa, the Middle East and Asia didn't sign up for the absolute devastation we've inflicted on them, first with "normal" colonialism, now with economic colo…

War crimes are the kind of thing the international is supposed to guard against. It is hard in practice because it needs to be enforced and enforcing it when there are no econimic incentives is ... unpalatable for any state. Which is why international order and US interests are generally tightly coupled. Now which war crimes are you talking about ? You need to be more specific. On the other hand, it's been a while since I have read "US marines destroy entire village killing women and children after raping them" so I guess not this kind of atrocities ?

I know the history. Yes colonialism was bad was it was mostly before the post war US led world order. If anything both the US and the USSR have sped up the end of colonialism which doesn't mean they each haven't promoted their own dictatorships against one another. That is not the current world we live in though. Indeed the voluntary alliances are mostly what we call "The west" or the "global North". The "devastation" of Africa isn't the sole responsibility of colonialism. It is mostly responsible for the dumb borders but all humans find a way to war against each other along ethnic lines. It was the case in Europe before WWII and it is unsurprisingly the case in Africa now.

Whatever you think about the IMF/World bank and economic colonialism, by which I take you mean any country taking advantage of its better economic position (China is also doing it) it is not the same thing as say sending your army to punish rebellion against the tax you impose on them.

https://acoup.blog/2019/12/05/collections-a-trip-through-thu... https://acoup.blog/2023/07/07/collections-the-status-quo-coa...

I am pro international order and totally for the allied nations not to follow along when the leader is abusing its power but I still think that world order is preferable to intersate anarchy.

Nobody ever signed up for anything. Making the world a better place is a hard problem.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#128

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

Aloisius wrote: post #123
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China has built 30,000 miles of high speed rails it doesn't need That's a ridiculous statement. High-speed rail is extremely heavily used in China (3 billion trips in 2023). This is like dismissing the US interstate highway system as a useless vanity project. HSR is a heavily used, central part of China's transportation infrastructure that has made getting between major Chinese cities way easier, faster and more co…

Except for a couple of lines that connect the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, most Chinese HSR lines operate below capacity and at a great loss. The bulk of the rail built in the last decade was to distant poorer regions who simply aren't willing to pay for faster transit.

If a line is operating at capacity, that's a problem. That's when you start getting overcrowding and delays. Overall utilization rates of Chinese HSR lines are fairly high. Less than 100%. More than 50%.

> to distant poorer regions

Rail is also used as a tool for economic development of such regions. The US built interstate highways across vast stretches of empty land, because the idea was to have a national grid that benefits the entire country.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#129

Post by toast0 »

hirsin wrote: post #122
toast0 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably will spark a bubble in deep sea distressed wood salvage operations when that becomes feasible. Logs that long ago got stuck on river bottoms on the way to mills are pretty valuable now if they're in good shape.

Is that just because they're old trees, which are stronger than the fast farmed ones we get today?

That's part of it, but also people enjoy the colors that developed in the wood while it was resting in the river.

Re: China completes green belt around Taklamakan Desert

#130

Post by kristianp »

soneca wrote: post #29

> ”The initiative combines solar-powered sand-blocking technology with extensive vegetation planting to stabilize the desert’s edges.” What sand-blocking tech is that? Does anyone know?

Perhaps giant solar powered bulldozers? The article is a joke when it comes to details and citations. It reads like a press release.
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