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Comment by CalRobert | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately, I have to agree. If there's any solace to be had in the US' accelerating decline and China's rise, it's that (rather shockingly) China seems to be more likely to do something about environmental issues than those who will be running the US in a few weeks are.

That shouldn't really be any solace at all, though.

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On what grounds do you conclude that China is more likely to do something about environmental issues? The record on air pollution is not good. Also, China burns an enormous amount of coal and the stats on whether consumption is going up or down are mixed. [1] The current consumption levels are unsustainable from a C02 perspective, so this is a big issue.

I'm not for a moment excusing US behavior but it's clear that all large economies are going to have problems changing their consumption patterns, often for reasons that are unique to each economy in question.

[1] https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/8780-Ch...

China is not "more likely to do something". China is "doing something". China is the worlds biggest investor in Green Tech and has surpassed Europe and the US combined.

http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/news/2016/03/china...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/08/11/china-to-sp...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/11/china-s...

I would say the difference is that China's leadership knows it's gone off the rails, whereas the US's leadership is mostly still in complete denial.

China's growth has forced them to acknowledge that their industrial expansion is not sustainable. The US leadership, meanwhile, has not had the necessary wake-up call.

China's authoritarian system of government means they can be much more quick and heavy-handed about changing direction without as much fear of making unpopular decisions, and they're already doing that. The US is hampered by the fact that its politicians are beholden to constituencies and lobbyists.

China seems to see green energy as being a business opportunity — these days, almost everyone except those with vested interest in the status quo do — and is making enormous investments. This, unfortunately, is probably the key to solving global warming: Make solving it financially desirable, and people, governments and companies will be incentivized by greed alone.

It's not exactly a novel approach, but we seem to have finally reached a tipping point where "green" no longer has the stigma of feeble, touchy-feely liberal environmentalism, which makes all the difference.

They have a powerful authoritarian regime run by engineers. In cases where there is a need to act quickly and decisively, that is an advantage. No need to convince the public (which in this case is already on board).

China seems to have acknowledged, through action at least, that the state of the environment is a concern. They are certainly putting their money towards renewables. [1]

[1]http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33143176

>> US' accelerating decline

care to elaborate?

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