It's a master plan. Look up ' Agenda 21'.

Popn density is a big issue. The mass urbanisation forecast for China in the coming decades is a real problem.

The population density of some areas of China is very low. But the popn density of the cities is at least 3x that of European cities and in many cases 10x that of the US. This just concentrates the polution.

@Alex. I agree about the consumption. And consumption per capita is increasing (still not at EU or US levels). But now the proverbial is starting to hit the fan, there is a social and political will to change/invest in new technologies.

In the UK in the late 60s early 70s we had rivers covered in white foam, with not fish, around some of our industrial cities. In the 1940s we smog so bad that many people died. Result - we changed what we were doing. China is also begining to change.

Some European countries are already discussing moving back to nuclear power. Citing the many wasted years of potential R&D in this area. Japan, 3 Mile Island, Sellafield, are exceptioinal cases. The tsunami in Japan is a really exceptional case, and more of a case of where to site nuclear power.

Nuclear power is an insideous threat, that may last into the future for thousands of years. In the mean time we have the very real hazards of burning fossil fuels. Global warming, lung and other diseases, not to mention the 10s of thousands of people killed mining everyyear (and those who die from miners diseases).

The arguements against nuclear energy are very strong. So are the arguements against the continued use of fossil fuels. However, it is easier for a government to change how the industry produces electricity, than it is to control how the populace use it.

my 2c

@AlPage48
I too like per capita rankings. But then I realized the environment could care less if a mound of garbage comes from 100 small people or 10 big wasteful ones. Is that fair? Nope. Does Planet Earth care about human math? Nope. It just sees a large mound of garbage coming it's way.

i've read similar things that tiger mentioned - that china could potentially become the green technology leader.

but i'm not so sure it's gonna happen any time soon. i think there was some proposed project near shanghai a while back that was supposed to be some sort of futuristic model green city. guess it was too costly. but on the other hand, shenzhen and guangzhou and zhuhai might merge into the world's largest megalopolis. i'm sure the air will be wonderful there.

what's incomprehensible to me is that given the abundance of sunshine that there aren't solar-powered cars and solar-powered everything in this city.

If they keep their current rate of development, China would still need several decades to surpass the US and Europe in terms of total amount of gases that have contributed to pollution on the planet.

@yankee00, Is that true regarding global warming, or are the US, UK, and other countries just more honest regarding the data and admitting to the world what they have done. China is notorious for altering data for their benefit. I do agree the US has been a massive polluter and for a long time people were in love with anything in a pressurized spray can which they say has greatly led to the breakdown of the ozone layer. I see china at the point where the USA was 30 years ago and i hope they can learn from other countries mistakes and have the resolve to fix things. 30 years ago many people from rural america refused to visit larger cities because of the pollution, but i do not think that is the case so much anymore.

Or is @yankee00 talking about total gas production in a country's industrial history?

Even if they altered their numbers, they have only recently been manufacturing in mass. That would still be quite far from what the US, Europe and Japan have contributed. Pollution in the UK was also quite dramatic during the industrial revolution, but there was no social media at that time.

There is an area of the UK called The Black Country. Because all the walls of the building turned black with soot from the factories. Even one of the local moths started to evolve with a new darker colouration of its camouflage.

But you do have to ask, regarding the climate change argument, whether it matters. The US/UK/Europe are all countries that consume lots of goods, they exported the manufacture and now import the goods to a country which they knew had/have a highly polluting electrical goods.

If they were really interested in solving global warming, they would put restrictions on countries that have heavily polluting industries, but instead they import anything they want and, I believe, this is by design. Essentially they said "Our goods are too expensive and our industries too polluting. Lets export that industry to get cheaper goods and a better quality environment!"