Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

clampie t1_j0rsw38 wrote

Everything you buy is produced in China. Where do you think they get the energy to produce it? If you close down the factory near you and move it to China, how is that green?

It's a shell game.

22

Kryosite t1_j0s7nbi wrote

Actually, a lot of the things you would traditionally think of as "made in China" aren't made there anymore. They've made an effort to pivot their economy more towards high-added-value manufacturing, like electronics, and away from labor-intensive low-cost bulk goods like clothing and little plastic knickknacks. Most of the cheap stuff moved to various parts of Southeast Asia.

Also, what reason do you have to believe that China is not investing in renewables? They're an emerging superpower with minimal fossil fuel reserves, reliant on international shipping to keep the lights on. They want to be energy-independent so they don't need to worry about starving of electricity if the US were to blockade the South China Sea from the string of naval bases it has on allied islands, or their oil pipelines from the Middle East getting sabotaged.

Additionally, the numbers they report aren't actually all that impressive for what they've built. Chinese hydroelectric dams have pretty low levels of efficiency, and they've displaced literal millions of people to build them, and done some pretty brutal damage to local ecosystems in the process.

That doesn't sound like some sort of attempt at winning good-boy points in hopes that it'll make NATO like you, it sounds like a major nation-state attempting to secure energy independence by any means necessary, which is very common in geopolitics.

12

clampie t1_j0rullf wrote

Don't trust that data.

China was building a lot of steel and cement for themselves. But that's over.

On top of producing everything consumed by the world. They still have to do that. That's where the emissions are from.

Where do you think your plastic hose comes from? From the plastic mine?

−2

mhornberger t1_j0rv5c0 wrote

I trust data over gut feeling. "Don't trust the data, trust my intuition" isn't a great argument. China is still building housing, electric cars, and all kinds of things.

>Where do you think your plastic hose comes from? From the plastic mine?

Are you pretending that anyone said that China doesn't export anything? China does export things. But they also have a huge domestic market. Cement and steel are not the entirety of their emissions. They also have a middle class, and more people with money to buy stuff.

4

clampie t1_j0rveox wrote

You trust Chinese data. That says it all. lol

−5

disisdashiz t1_j0s2o1w wrote

I thought they are caught in the wild on the ho island.

2