Comments on: How China Will (or Won’t) Curb its GHG Emissions

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:46:45 +0000

Good point — changing mass human behavior is definitely more difficult than controlling manufacturing regulations. (We can’t even convince everyone in the U.S. that climate change is real and/or a problem!) I think voluntary, widescale population control is another big part of the equation, but it’s an even touchier subject than American consumer habits.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next fifty years. I’m not feeling extremely optimistic…

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:10:36 +0000

Thanks Jennifer. You are right that consumerism is running rampant, especially in the United States (goods provided by China). And I agree that this is a very real problem…there is more conservation than recycling, etc. We could also stand to reign in our excess and vie for moderation instead.

Yet global population will continue to grow and, even if everyone cut back now, demand would once again grow as well. I believe that both how we do it and how much we do are equally important. It will (should) be easier to regulate manufacturing than control what people spend/consume. Either way, an amazing amount of damage can be done to the local population and environment by just one manufacturing plant…

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:49:08 +0000

Is it me, or does it seem like the real problem is the quantity of manufacturing (and consuming) and less so the way we do it? I mean, yes, solar-powered factories would obviously be preferable to coal- or nuclear-powered, but it seems like a stop-gap solution to the huge underlying problem of America’s rampant consumerism.

Just my two cents…inspired by my latest walkthrough of a dollar store. Great blog, by the way!