Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India

Post by rob74 » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:26 PM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #34

ixtli wrote: post #10

I think its very important to engage with the fact that this is something China can do because of what we in the west deem unacceptably "authoritarian" governance. This effect isn't entirely due to people's starry-eyed conservationism: the government arrests people and closes factories that violate these ecological goals. By way of example, this happened a few weeks ago and is very difficult to find coverage of in en…

And what about India? As far as I know it doesn't have an authoritarian government. Europe is also democratic and has been a world leader in environmental policy. It's really just the United States that has the problem. I don't think the key difference is authoritarian vs. democratic, but "prudent" vs. "proudly ignorant". America has some deep, deep-rooted cultural problems that are really at the heart of our environ…

Post by jolfdb » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:28 PM UTC

ixtli wrote: post #64

whatshisface wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wants to uplift China Why would they want to do that? To stay in power, presumably - the same as any other political organization. If they are ever faced with a situation where the best way to stay in power is to destroy China, they will take it; an option that US politicians might sometimes wish they could take, but are unable to because of limits on their power.

There are a million CPC officials, and 2200 elected representatives. The party claims 89 million members. I’d be critical of attempts to view it as a somehow monolithic entity that exists separately from “the rest” of China.

Post by jolfdb » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:32 PM UTC

magnamerc wrote: post #44

baddox wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand. Why would central planning be required to fix climate change? How about just charge greenhouse gas emitters so that there are no longer externalities? I don’t see any reason to turn to central planning, unless one just uses that term to refer to any regulations involving the economy.

I think a lot of right wingers in North America would say that regulations such as taxing carbon, or providing government incentives to solar or wind farms would be considered a socialist centrally planned catastrophe. I mean, that's what the 'Green New Deal' is all about, and apparently American right wing nuts think that's communism.

Post by siffland » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

umadon wrote: post #18

ixtli wrote: post #10

I think its very important to engage with the fact that this is something China can do because of what we in the west deem unacceptably "authoritarian" governance. This effect isn't entirely due to people's starry-eyed conservationism: the government arrests people and closes factories that violate these ecological goals. By way of example, this happened a few weeks ago and is very difficult to find coverage of in en…

"the government arrests people and seizes factories that violate these ecological goals" Why isn't this a good thing? Shouldn't people who ignore ecological laws be punished? And anyway, how do you propose to fix climate change without massive, centralized planning, including punishment of those who subvert such a fix for personal gain? Also, in your link, the plants are closed, not seized.

Post by bakul » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC