China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total::China installed more new solar capacity last year than the total amount ever installed in any other country.

    • nednobbins@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      A lot of people don’t realize how quickly China is changing. Things that were true just a few decades ago are often no longer true.

      Once China decided that pollution was a problem they went all in on addressing it. China has massive reforestation projects, huge incentives to switch to EVs, and much tighter energy efficiency standards.

      Solar isn’t even their only renewable energy source. China gets about equal amounts from solar, wind and hydro https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/energy-transition/013124-coal-still-accounted-for-nearly-60-of-chinas-electricity-supply-in-2023-cec together they make up a little less than half of their total energy production and the ratio keeps improving. correction: those are projected ratios, not current ratios.

      Of course, on a per capita basis, China isn’t even close to being a top polluter. Unless you think that people in smaller countries deserve to pollute more, per-capita is the better measurement. China looks a little worse if you do that but it’s still far from a top polluter by that metric.

    • Nesola@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      10 months ago

      That is producing for the rest of the world and especially for the west. It’s hypocritical to blame china while buying stuff that had to be cheaper and cheaper.

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don’t think that absolves China of any blame. They’re still choosing to produce cheap goods at the expense of the planet, because it’s good business for them too.

        • essteeyou@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          10 months ago

          If not them then it’d be someone else. Clearly they’re starting to take polluting seriously.

          If you look at CO2 emissions per capita then China is actually doing better than countries like Canada, the US, and Singapore. Assuming I haven’t completely misread that table.

          • PatFusty@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            10 months ago

            CO2 emissions are carefully curated and we are not even that good at calculating them. I wouldn’t trust any of this info coming from China let alone from any nation.

              • PatFusty@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 months ago

                Big dog 2 months… If you knew how companies figure out their pollution metrics you would be very sad.

                As for a better metric, I don’t know. Everything is tied to cost so it’s really dumb

                • nednobbins@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  8 months ago

                  Not sure why you’re so hung up on dogs or 2 months. The thread still shows up in searches and you’re clearly getting updates on it. Unless there’s some evidence to suggest the information in this thread is now obsolete, there’s no reason not to respond.

                  @[email protected] made a claim and provided evidence. Unless there’s better evidence to the contrary it’s reasonable to accept the claim. My children sometimes still respond to arguments with, “Nuh uh.” I generally expect more from adults.

      • RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        10 months ago

        No, it’s not hypocritical. Yes, anyone with half a brain knows China makes a huge chunk of the world’s stuff.

        A nation can make choices as to what energy sources they use and China went balls to the wall with coal. That wasn’t a choice the buyers of Chinese products made.

        • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          10 months ago

          Lol look what they are spending the money they earn from those industries. At least they are not solely funding decades long genocide but actually doing something about the emissions they take on.

        • nednobbins@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Production will always have some waste and pollution. China has high pollution because we do a lot of production there. As I pointed out above, on both a per-capita and a per-production basis China pollutes less than many industrialized nations (US. Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan) and many developing nations (Singapore, Malaysia).

          Given current manufacturing data, moving production out of China to other countries would likely increase pollution.