The non-2008 growth rates are why people like Michael Shellenberger tell a certain tech magazine things like, “”If China burns all the coal that it is set to burn between now and 2050, we are super-deeply fucked.” The 2008 growth rate is why people like the environmental economist, Alan Randall, say things like, “These are not ordinary times, but there is a silver lining – recessions tend to be good for the environment.”
This data is coming out of Richard K. Morse’s group at Stanford, who told the New York Time’s Andy Revkin that even though China “had seen slowdowns in the growth in electricity supplies recently, often because of shortages of coal or the ability to get the fuel where it was needed,” the jump off the cliff beginning “in the last few months is new.”
Via > Andy Revkin’s DotEarth
Image Credit: Richard K. Morse, Stanford University. Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics
January 7, 2009 at 12:50 am
Recessions may be good for the environment short term, but high oil demand is what led to $147 a barrel oil. In the long term that is what will drive clean tech and efficiency.
April 15, 2009 at 10:34 am
My friend on Orkut shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed that I came here.