Given Chinas rapid development, can it avoid contributing to global warming?
That’s a real challenge. Part of the problem is that China can’t afford to slow its growth by very much without causing massive unemployment. The biggest risk for China is societal rather than economic. If you have too many people without jobs, it threatens the credibility of the government and the party in power. So given that imperative, Chinese leaders are very concerned about the environment, but there are limits to what they can do. Having said that, I think they are very serious about the environment. They just haven’t gotten it all together yet. Having enough expertise is another issue. They are a long way from having all the people they need to understand all the environmental implications of rapid development. And, even if they did and enacted regulations to manage it, China is such a vast country that enforcing and policing regulations leaves a lot to be desired. China now ranks number two worldwide in its number of billionaires. With new fortunes being made in China, do you
