And yet with all these numbers, Chinese per capita emissions remain one-quarter of our own here in the US. If the Chinese economy steps into our carbon footprint, all other greenhouse gas reduction efforts will be for naught.
But I have hope for China because their government knows that climate change will impact their country as much, if not more, than many others. That would leave them with a structural competitive disadvantage, which the Chinese have generally avoided.
Just take a look at the Chinese water situation. Half of the country's land is arid or semi-arid, and like the American West, vulnerable to drying out in the early stages of climate change. Climate change linked drying could reduce China's agricultural output by 5 to 10 percent by 2030, which would be a disaster in a country that the authors point out has 20 percent of the world's population and 7 percent of its arable land.
Chinese government officials know they have an environmental disaster unfolding within their country. If the US takes positive steps towards reducing our own emissions and helping the Chinese with theirs, I think we will find a willing partner.
After all, there is one bright spot in the journal article. China's reforestation efforts, which replant trees that act as carbon sinks. Forest cover has increased from 12% in 1980 to 18.2% in 2005. My back-of-the-envelope math says that added 348,000 square miles of forest to China. That's a whopping 223 million acres.
Courtesy of Alexis Madrigal from Wired Science
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