2010: Largest Increase in CO2 Emissions On Record: Actions To Date Insufficient

China's 600 New Coal Burning Power Plants Have to Be a Factor

Excellent analysis, WD.  Fish Out of Water has an analysis at Kos which notes that China has become the world's largest producer of CO2, exceeding the US' by 750 MT/Yr.  Since China's 600 new coal fired steam electric generating stations have been coming on line over the past two years, I suspect that China will remain the world's #1 CO2 producer. Since we all have to breath the air and live in the warmer world, it will harm us as it does others.  Solving this problem will require great statesmanship, a quality badly missing the world these days.  

Keep up the good work.

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by: saindenver @ Fri Nov 04, 2011 at 21:13:47 PM UTC

They're absolutely a factor

So are India's new plants.  As long as those two countries' (and to a lesser extent other developing countries) economies continue to expand using dirty energy, emissions are going to skyrocket.  China will not relinquish the #1 emitter spot for a long time to come, in my opinion.  The U.S. will be a high-ranked emitter, but will slide down the "leader" board.

Once I get a break from school this winter, I'll share some analyses I've done with regard to economies and emissions.  The numbers are more sobering than even I thought they were just this past summer.  As you say, it will require true statesmanship to put anything meaningful together.

Thanks for the supportive words, SA!

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by: WeatherDem @ Fri Nov 04, 2011 at 21:56:25 PM UTC

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I'll tell you what the best approach is!!

You ready?

Collapse of industrial civilization!

That'll win me some friends.  

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by: Fong @ Sat Nov 05, 2011 at 06:59:39 AM UTC

"The power of population

is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race."
-- Thomas Malthus, 1798

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by: Mucius Scaevola @ Sat Nov 05, 2011 at 13:37:30 PM UTC

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Or perhaps

smarter, more efficient industrial civilization?

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by: WeatherDem @ Sat Nov 05, 2011 at 15:45:08 PM UTC

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No. I still think that's inadequate

Don't you see us as being way beyond resource capacity to accomplish that? Additionally, it wouldn't solve the ultimate problem which is that cities require resources from outside the land base of the city to survive. This requirement is the basis of capitalism (see the connection?) and is inherently unsustainable.

Plus, I don't want to see wind farms covering the plains so we can have air-conditioning and iphones.

I think there will have to be sacrifices. It makes me ill and it makes me despair to realize that because I think the sacrifices will be huge and more painful than anything ever. If you have any other insights, I would love to hear them because I would love to be wrong.  

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by: Fong @ Sat Nov 05, 2011 at 23:35:46 PM UTC

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Not sure

about resource capacity.  I know I've heard a lot of things in the past, but the primary lesson I've learned this semester is to question everything you hear, especially if it reinforces your worldview.  So for now, I'd like to hold off on answering that question with certainty because I haven't had the time to dig into it like I want.

I would like to point out that it's not just cities that require resources from outside the land base to survive - the smallest towns do also.  Cities actually use those resources more efficiently than do their rural brethren.  A point of order here: what does it mean to "survive"?  Most Americans have moved way beyond materialist concerns (food, water, housing, etc.)  We're only concerned about these type of topics because we've moved so far beyond them.  But it's become our new reality and for that reason, people justifiably freak out when faced with the prospect of doing with less.

Now, I'm not a paragon of virtue, but I've made some small measure of sacrifices in my life.  While I'm not living entirely off the land I inhabit (far from it), I know I live a very different kind of lifestyle from my friends and family.  What would happen if they all chose to live like that?  I want to say that good things would happen as a result.  Will they have to live like that, and even adopt further sacrifices down the road?  Part of me says, "Yes, of course".  But another part recognizes there have been no requirements for change thus far and I'm not sure when such an event might occur in the future.  I would like to think I'm getting a small head-start, but that's incredibly egotistical at the same time.

My first insight is that we have to stop despairing and start thinking of the opportunities that are possible.  Despair typically leads to inaction while action tends to flows from the recognition of opportunity.  I won't tell you you're wrong because I'm not sure who might be correct (you, me, or anyone else).

My second insight is that we cannot tell developing countries that they can't enjoy the prosperity we've taken for granted for so long.  Additional pressures are being applied to systems and we're going to be much better off recognizing that reality and then trying to work from it.  We have to take care of our own habits and tendencies before lecturing others about theirs.

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by: WeatherDem @ Sun Nov 06, 2011 at 21:23:31 PM UTC

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