Economics

Climate change used to make me depressed until I saw that China is almost single-handedly saving the world. China just tripled their new solar energy production in one year. At just 17% of the world population, China is now home to 80% of the world’s solar production. They produce a third of all renewable energy, three times more than the United States, who is now producing more fossil fuels than any country in human history. Over the next five years, China will build as much renewable capacity as the rest of the world combined, plus an additional 30% more. Meanwhile, the US is restricting the trade of affordable Chinese solar panels.

China also plants more trees yearly than any country in the world. They’ve been fighting back the spread of the Gobi Desert since the 70’s by reforesting as much area as the state of California. China’s Great Green Wall project is their second wall big enough to be seen from space.

You’ve seen the memes about Taylor Swift’s private jet. People are freaking out because air travel is easily the worst thing an individual can do for the environment. A single passenger on a flight from New York to LA and back is responsible for 10% of the average American’s CO2 emissions.

Taking a train can cut emissions of a shorter flight by over 80% and actually save you time since high speed rail can travel over 250MPH. Yeah, train stations are easier to get to and don’t have hour-long security lines. That’s why I’m freaking out over the fact that China built 68% of the world’s high speed rail in just 15 years!

It’s gonna be the only sustainable way to travel fast, and it’s cheaper than flying too! It costs around $80, ⅓ of the price of flying, to take high speed rail from Beijing to Shanghai. And if you’re on a budget, you can take a slower train for as cheap as $20.

Also, China is the leading producer and purchaser of electric vehicles, producing and purchasing over 5 times as much as the United States, who’s in second place. Meanwhile, the United States has banned Chinese electric car brands from selling their superior quality and much more affordable cars to us. Apparently there are now several smaller EV models that sell for under $10,000 in China, and they’re actually nice and hi-tech. The savings come from the insanely efficient and automated factories they’ve developed.

Meanwhile Tesla, one of the biggest companies in the United States, manufactures over half of their cars in China. And the EU just hit China’s biggest EV company with a 13-month audit to make sure that the government hasn’t been unfairly helping the company develop its technology… to save our planet from destruction… because… markets? They’re also admitting that socialist economies have an advantage yet say socialism can never work… uhhh.

Do you see how ironic it is that these capitalist countries have to use their governments to keep their failing industries alive because they can’t compete with China on a free market? Gotta save the corporations… at the expense of the consumer and the planet.

When I visited Shenzhen, the streets were covered with a brand new fleet of electric taxis. The entire world needs to follow China’s rapid pace if we want to prevent rising sea levels, massive crop failures, and extreme natural disasters. But the rest of the world is still subservient to corporations and profit. The only reason China can do all this is also the reason why they’re the biggest polluters in the world. I’ll explain.

First, know that this pollution comes from development and manufacturing so much for the rest of the world. Second, know that China has taken over 28% of the world’s manufacturing. China is the biggest producer of coal in the world because it’s the energy source they have today to build the renewable energy of tomorrow. And it still puts China behind 14 other countries when you divide by their massive population. China pollutes way less per person than Japan or South Korea while Australia, Canada, and the US all pollute almost 3x as much per person.

China has taken on over 28% of the world’s manufacturing and is the biggest trading partner of 120 of the world’s 195 countries. Look around at all the clothing, electronics, machines, and even the phone in your hand. So much of it was made in China. In a sense, the world is exporting all their emissions these products cause to China.

They do this because China made it so the corporations need what they have. It’s profitable for the corporations to play by their rules because China’s developed the best factories, have the most experienced workforce, and now have the largest middle-class consumer market. 

China understands that controlling production is the only path to sovereignty in this capitalist world. They chose to use capitalism’s short-term profit-seeking against itself to bring a large share of the world’s production under their control. They had to pollute their own country a ton for foreign corporations to profit, so they could bring that money in to build their own production.

Now they can afford to manufacture and develop all this green tech and focus on long-term goals. No capitalist countries can start a war with them or try to redirect their production to short-term profit-seeking because the corporations in charge of the rest of the world are too invested in China. They obey short-term profits while China is building the green economy of the future.

Here are some useful graphs I will use as graphics for the video I made on this subject: