A concise and powerful headline from New Scientist via Worldwatch:
China and India 'hold the world in balance'Development giants China and India "hold the world in balance", says a new report by a US environmental think tank.
"The choices these two countries make in the next few years will lead the world either towards growing ecological and political instability – or down a development path based on efficiency and better stewardship of resources," says a report from the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC, US.
One in every two tonnes of cement poured today will be in China – such is the country's breakneck pace of economic development. The country also uses one-quarter of all the world's steel, eats one-third of the world’s rice, and is the world’s largest importer of tropical timber and second largest importer of oil.
As well as using ever more resources, the two countries are also creating an increasing proportion of the world's pollution. China, which gets two-thirds of its energy from coal, is now the second largest source of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, while India is fourth, says Worldwatch's State of the World 2006 report.
Read the rest of the article -- not all the news is bad. And if you're really interested, you can buy a copy of the report for $18.95.
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog
Despite stuffups like those enormous dams, etc., I think China and India (particularly China) are really, really serious about resources and the environment. China wants to be a superpower and it knows that this depends on not blowing its natural capital ... and when the Chinese do something, boy do they do it! More importantly, developing countries aren't already committed to a wasteful, enviro-unfriendly infrastructure like Australia or America. They're much more flexible.
Posted by: Roland | January 17, 2006 at 01:40 PM
Unfortunately, they are also not so dependant on matters of environmental protection. A worker's life doesn't count much, China has a big desertification problem, and the recent series of river pollutions combined with Cold War obfuscation of the fact (which makes you wonder how often they have actually succeeded in obfuscating) shows they have a long way to go to be really environment-friendly. I believe though that this attitude might change, because the Chinese are pragmatic people. They will adapt to almost anything if it benefits them in the long run.
Posted by: Matt | January 17, 2006 at 03:24 PM
I don't think you'll have to worry about any Chinese political instability.
China is big on nanotech funding lately. India is having trouble attracting people to its Bangalore tech-agglomeration because of very basic smog and traffic congestion problems. I agree with Matt, they are both motivated to be part of the solution in the long run. China's growing coal consumption is scary. We need nanoteched printable solar cells and hydrogen storage mechanisms sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Phillip Huggan | January 18, 2006 at 12:00 AM
Let's not forget that China is the country that did the Great Leap Forward just a few decades ago. Cut down vast numbers of trees to make steel in inefficient backyard furnaces.
Did they learn from this? Did they learn enough to overcome the system that made them do it in the first place?
Chris
Posted by: Chris Phoenix, CRN | February 12, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Question 4 answer near the top middle of this article I wrote discusses china and pollution
http://advancednano.blogspot.com/2007/01/more-against-coal.html
China will spend $30B each year on environmental protection and cleanup each year. include estimates of 6.4 million work years lost annually in China to air pollution
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/business/wbchina.php
China arrests polluters
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arrests_After_China_River_Polluted_By_Arsenic_Compound_999.html
china is making hybrid cars
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/07/chinese_carmake_1.php
Posted by: Brian Wang | February 12, 2007 at 09:30 AM