What the U.S. used to do and be about, reason the World envied and respected us and our products, once, and it isn't only China now. That pretty much ended some thirty years back and we've been falling since.
Mar 31 2011 - I had the pleasure of visiting a clean-energy project just outside of Shanghai last year. The project installed brand new equipment on a large coal-fired power plant to capture 120,000 tons of CO2 each year. Dr. Liu, our guide, impressed us with a few facts
-- The new equipment was designed, built and made operational in just one year, incredibly fast for this kind of operation.
-- In fact, it was permitted in three days! It had very low operating costs (still does after one year of operation, too).
-- Everything we saw was indigenous design.
For enthusiasts of climate and of energy, China's the main event. They use the most energy, most coal, most steel and most cement of any nation -- with that, they emit the most pollution and greenhouse gases. Pollution from China alone directly affects the earth's climate, both by reflecting some light to outer space (soot and aerosols) and warming the atmosphere with black carbon particles. They're the biggest challenge of the day globally and the whole end game. The only thing that beats a trip to China is working in China, which I've enjoyed now for three years.
What's hard to impress on people who haven't visited is the scale of the investment made in energy and infrastructure. Roughly 10 million people are moving from the country to cities every year in China -- in some cases, the provincial government will commission a city of 500,000 people and just build it from scratch. A new, large coal plant is built in China every week -- in some years, twice a week. {continued}
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