… is heading for a wall.
In the debate over climate and sustainable development, people often talk about China as though it is some sort of rapacious automaton, blindly dedicated to growing its economy no matter the cost. But while I’ve never been to China, I’m told it’s filled with intelligent people. They know how to read — for instance, how to read reports saying they’re on track to exhaust their natural resources in the next couple of decades. Presumably the Chinese leadership is not suicidal, so it seems logical to think that sooner than later we’re going to have an active partner in the search for sustainability. We have many challenges ahead, but I don’t think wrestling China into a headlock and forcing them to take steps to shift to a clean economy is going to be one of them.
