Environmentalists (like me) like to talk about how the U.S. needs to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if it expects developing nations like China and India to reduce theirs. It seems to make sense since the argument China and India like to give is that if we’re not doing it, how can they, poor little developing nations that they are, afford to change their manufacturing processes and lifestyle choices to cut back on GHGs?

A new study out last month points the finger for a large chunk of China’s emissions right back at us. According to an article in New Scientist, 33% of China’s GHG emissions come from exports. That’s right, the crap we buy everyday accounts for a third of china’s GHG emissions. That’s equal to 6% of the world’s total emissions.

Yikes. Now, I’m not saying China should be let off the emissions hook. China is dependent on coal for 80 percent of their electricity and erected almost two large coal-fired power plants a week in 2006, according to the Pew Center for Climate Change. But, we here in the West do need to take some responsibility. You may feel that you need to shop at Wal-Mart because of our current recession, and that’s a valid concern (I guess. Wal-Mart? Really?) but how can we honestly expect China just to drastically raise its cost of doing business if our government (and those of the rest of the West) is not willing to help ease the pain a bit?

After all, our addiction to Ipods is feeding theirs to GHGs.

hat tip: Earth2Tech

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.