What could be...

Some democrats Pelosi, Gore, and others would like to see the US government seize this kind of power.

Beijing United States Bans One Thirty Million Cars for Olympics to reduce greenhouse gases, Sharply Raises Gas Prices.



The environmentalist wacko left-wingers continue to play loose with facts... they never talk about this.

China home to 16 of 20 of the world's most polluted cities

Al Gore makes it sound like China doesn't have a pollution problem compared to the US.

Quote:The priorities of environmental activists, both foreign and Chinese, almost never reflect this. Greenpeace lobbies for China to invest in wind farms, an unrealistic answer to the country’s power needs, while environmentalists from rich countries naively tell aspiring Chinese to eschew their new cars and air-conditioners.

Nope, those darn environmentalists never say anything about this. Your own article criticizes enviromentalists for putting too much pressure on the Chinese.

I'm not saying I agree with the environmental activists, particularly the lunatic fringe, but why would you expect American environmentalists to talk to us about the problems in China (I'm willing to bet that the Chinese enviromentalists don't talk to their people about America's environmental problems)? We can't do anything about it but we can do something about our pollution, our energy consumption. If we reduce our pollution it will make a difference, locally as well as globally (did you read the estimated costs associated with pollution in China?).

While the cost/benefit ratio of any proposed action needs to be favorable, it's silly to try & use the examples of other, and particularly developing, nations, to excuse our own inaction. I have no problem with saying that a proposed solution costs too much or won't make an actual impact, but I don't think it makes sense to try & say that noone else is doing it so why should we.

jh Wrote:

Quote:The priorities of environmental activists, both foreign and Chinese, almost never reflect this. Greenpeace lobbies for China to invest in wind farms, an unrealistic answer to the country’s power needs, while environmentalists from rich countries naively tell aspiring Chinese to eschew their new cars and air-conditioners.

Nope, those darn environmentalists never say anything about this. Your own article criticizes enviromentalists for putting too much pressure on the Chinese.

I'm not saying I agree with the environmental activists, particularly the lunatic fringe, but why would you expect American environmentalists to talk to us about the problems in China (I'm willing to bet that the Chinese enviromentalists don't talk to their people about America's environmental problems)? We can't do anything about it but we can do something about our pollution, our energy consumption. If we reduce our pollution it will make a difference, locally as well as globally (did you read the estimated costs associated with pollution in China?).

While the cost/benefit ratio of any proposed action needs to be favorable, it's silly to try & use the examples of other, and particularly developing, nations, to excuse our own inaction. I have no problem with saying that a proposed solution costs too much or won't make an actual impact, but I don't think it makes sense to try & say that noone else is doing it so why should we.

Chinese environmentalists don't talk period or they would be imprisoned or shot. I am referring to US activitists that make statements that the US is responsible for most of the world's pollution but only represent a fraction of the population. I don't expect folks to talk about problems in other parts of the world, neither do I expect them to make it sound like we can fix the world's problems.

Do you deny the claim that America is among the world leaders in both absolute & per capita pollution for the majority of pollutants (though we do much better if GDP is factored in as well)? Even when China suprases us on all polutants, as they already have on some, this will still be the case.

American activists, at least the reasonable ones, are trying to further change the behaviors of Americans, unfortunately often through ill conceived governmental regulations. Pointing to the failures (or in China's case, growing pains) of other nations only serves to discourage such efforts. We can't solve the world's problem on our own, but we can continue to work on solving our part of it. And whether you want to admit it or not, it's a big part.