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Top-level
 @neglesaks China is literally the only major country in the world that's doing anything meaningful to transition off fossils. China dominates solar cell production and wind power, and they're building over 150 nuclear reactors. They're also the only country with a concrete plan to become carbon neutral that's actively being implemented right now. How is China not playing ball exactly? 9 comments
@neglesaks sure, they're a workshop for the world so they need energy to manufacture stuff before the alternative energy infrastructure is built out. Thing to keep in mind that if production wasn't done in China then it would still be done using fossils in other countries. At least China is working on a transition. Also worth noting that per capita energy consumption in China is far lower than in the west. Which means they're already far ahead.  @yogthos This is aside from the point, though correct - PRC is ramping up ALL of its energy production because they're the heavy mfg factory for the world. Also, keep in mind that I, while being a critic of the PRC overall policies, *do* praise China for supporting nuclear energy, which shows that they are not shot in the head like the nuclear-trembling populations/politicians of the West. @neglesaks I think the reality of the situation is that it's likely not possible to do anything substantially better than what China is doing. Most people aren't willing to drastically cut their standard of living. So, you need to keep using current levels of energy to keep things going as they are, while you need even more energy to build the new infrastructure. I suspect that once climate disasters intensify countries are going to start trying things like geoengineering. @neglesaks things like seeding reflective particles in the atmosphere, trying to build sun shields, and so on. And of course these solutions will almost certainly bring their own unintended consequences along with them. One thing that seems pretty certain is that we can't keep the climate stable by simply reducing emissions at this point. @neglesaks that's certainly one way to put it, I think we're close to figuring out one of the solutions to Fermi paradox here @yogthos I hope and pray this is not the case but I'd be lying if I said the same thought hadn't crossed my mind regularly. |
Gregory's Server
@yogthos They are also building plenty of newer coal-fired plants. I'm not saying that they are doing *nothing*, but they are very clearly doing it at their own pace and plan.