Hello Lowdown readers: I found
this opinion piece really hopeful, actually, because Jared Diamon, author of
Guns, Germs, and Steel, makes the point that our quality of living need not suffer just because we're being smart about consumption. Sometimes the gloom & doom messages overwhelm me - but Diamond explains well. It makes me want to read
Guns, Germ & Steel.
3 comments:
Why not just watch the PBS series?
http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
Erin, Allen LOVED this book--he even got his dad to read it. I'm sure he would enjoy talking to you about it.
I agree in theory, but I also think there are a few holes in his argument. Such as on wasting gasoline. Europe has a relatively small geographic area where public transportation works well. The U.S. is so spread out that public transportation is not so feasible.
That said, I am experiencing first-hand China's rise in consumption and still am amazed at how much I consume in comparison.
New cars enter Beijing's streets at an average or 5,000 per day. Traffic is unbelievably bad and people have postulated that the air quality (which is most days bad enough to keep people indoors for fear of their health) is so bad because of all the new cars.
But, here's another thought. When we moved here, our employer paid for enough electricity to last us what the average Chinese person would use in a year. It lasted three months. Now I wouldn't consider us energy hogs. We turn the lights out when we're not in a room, etc. But we use SO much more than our Chinese compatriots. They bundle up with layers of long underwear and turn off the heater. Right now the heat is turned off completely in China. We have a space heater going right now keeping our home (at least the room I'm currently in) nice and toasty.
Here's another thought. I teach English to a man who works at a French energy company. He partners with Chinese companies to provide energy to China. I asked him about consumption in China--the juxtaposition between Chinese people's parsimony in energy consumption and yet their high collective emission of green-house gases.
He said that it was because China's energy producing is inefficient. Much of the country's power is coal-based and outdated. This means that there is a low energy return for a high environmental impact. So people are literally freezing in the winter while still damaging the environment.
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