Articles by David Roberts

We heart China, honest

Last week, Daily Grist reported -- somewhat tongue in cheek -- that China had surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest overall consumer. It's all part of our ongoing obsession with China's boggling growth, which is, from the environmentalist's point of view, probably the single most significant socioeconomic trend in the world right now.

We've gotten several letters since then yelling at us for being "anti-China." You see, China has four times as many people as the U.S., so on a per capita basis, Americans consume much, much more and produce much, much more waste.

Yes, yes, Americans are the evilest, forever and always. Bring me my hairshirt! Can we have our green credentials back now?

But still. The fact that China recently passed us, and has four times as many people, means that it's going to get way bigger. Huge. Fast. If it develops along the same lines as the U.S., using the same technologies and fuel sources, we are all screwed. The earth cannot handle another U.S.-style consumer, four times the size of the original.

The answer is not to try to stop China from developing -- as if such a thing were remotely in the realm of possibility -- or to demonize it. The answer is to do everything we can to try to make China a showcase for every sustainable development trick in the book. The Chinese want prosperity, just as we do, so let's help them leapfrog, get there without sucking up the rest of the world's oil and accelerating climate change. Given its closed political system, there's a limit to what Western greens can do, but at the very least we should be paying attention and doing what we can. There's evidence that China's government gets this, anyway.

Obviously, this should be done in conjunction with -- not instead of -- working to make Western industry and lifestyles more sustainable as well.

Warming oceans

There was a flurry of stories recently on some new studies that tried to get a handle on the extent of global warming by measuring ocean temperatures. For all you science geeks out there, a new post on the invaluable RealClimate explains why that's a good idea.

Geoff on death

I would be remiss if I did not point out that Geoff Dabelko, director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and regular Gristmill contributor, was recently interviewed by Wildside News, an environmental radio program, about the "Death of Environmentalism" controversy.

You can hear the interview here and the full show here.

It's a wide-ranging interview and quite effective at providing a larger perspective on the issue. Give it a listen.

I’m lovin’ it!

Okay, sorry I put that song in your head.

This NYT story is interesting: Apparently McDonald's entrance into the fresh fruit and veggie market -- driven by pressure to offer healthier options, salads and such -- has made it, almost overnight, one of the biggest players in the $80 billion American produce industry.

Two bits from the story, one funny, one significant: