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  • Florida Weekly - Bonita Springs Edition

    China’s flag is red, not green

    By Staff,

    2024-05-30
    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=28InAM_0tYBqo2R00

    That Wall Street Journal headline stated the obvious: China is doing everything to prosper and grow and nothing to help the environment.

    Make no mistake: China’s worsening record of greenhouse emissions is the main reason we’re losing the war on climate change.

    The Hudson Institute’s Tom Duesterberg lists some of the particulars.

    ¦ China is the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, with levels 50% higher than those of the U.S., Europe and Japan combined. And its emissions are going up (a 13% increase since 2015), not down.

    ¦ China’s construction of coal-fired power plants is increasing at a torrid pace. It already accounts for 53% of the world’s coal usage, and it’s mining more coal than anyone else, some 4.66 billion metric tons in 2023.

    ¦ China’s massive lumber imports are a major cause of deforestation and the loss of the CO2-absorbing rainforest in South America.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping plays President Biden like a fiddle. In recent talks with U.S. officials, he promised to convert China to a net-zero environment, a commitment he has repeatedly made over the past several years. After U.S. officials leave Beijing, it’s business as usual: more petroleum purchases from the Saudis, more pipelines to ensure a steady supply of natural gas, and more contracts for more coal plants.

    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0XDm8J_0tYBqo2R00

    TRECKER

    We’re probably not sending the right people to argue the case. Perhaps we should try the prattling activist Greta Thunberg or a reprogrammed Jane Fonda. Direct pressure from Biden doesn’t seem to work. Maybe his teleprompter is broken.

    Meanwhile, the planet is getting hotter. Temperatures around the globe hit new highs over the past several months. March was the 10th month in a row when temperatures were the highest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the oceans are warming at an alarming rate. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says they are now the hottest since the 1800s.

    Concerns are prompting economists to get into the game. Germany’s Institute for Climate Impact Research claims climate change will shave 17% off the global GDP by mid-century, and that doesn’t take into account weather extremes or faster than-predicted rises in sea level.

    The bad news doesn’t stop there. In March, the planet blew past the 1.5-degree Celsius increase the Paris Agreement said was a red line in the sand never to be breached. Is that reversible? No way.

    Certainly, Biden’s political campaign will have little effect on warming. The president blocked oil drilling on federal land in Alaska, withheld pipeline permitting, and paused approval for exporting liquefied natural gas. My guess is that those actions would reduce global CO2 emissions by less than 0.1%.

    But it really doesn’t matter. U.S. oil production is surging to new highs (over 13 million barrels daily), and natural gas output is just as robust (some 45 trillion cubic feet). Demand shows no sign of slackening. Growth of artificial intelligence is driving energy needs, and wind speeds are said to be declining, at least in North America.

    Here’s a good question. Does anybody care? In March, a WSJ poll showed that only 3% of 18-to-34-year-old voters named climate change their top concern. That was slightly higher than that of voters of all ages, only 2% of whom said climate was their main worry.

    But what we worry about or what we do in this country doesn’t make a whit of difference as long as China keeps pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    Oh, by the way, China is also the world’s largest producer of disposable plastics. ¦

    — Dave Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer executive living in Florida.

    The post China’s flag is red, not green first appeared on Bonita Springs Florida Weekly .

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