bombastically beijing

mood: happy.
state i'm in: here comes PBL... again.
tune: sneaky sound system "pictures".


yes it's true that beijing stated this week that, in a 400 page report on the actions of china on global climate change, "developing the economy and improving people's lives remains the country's primary task". They have flatly rejected at this point that concerns for the global environment should at all constrain manufacturing and energy industries.

john howard, amongst many others i am sure, has taken this as credence behind his extremely myopic statement that any action taken in australia is futile unless greater emitters such as the USA, china, and india also come onboard. from this argument, it is safe to assume that mr howard has given up on climate change before the race has even begun, and is more than willing to accept enormous long-term econonic costs in order to avoiding risking short-term small economic gains (and his own reputation). if mr howard was the leader of greenland, a land that is now witnessing the birth of a significant agricultural sector (thanks to an increase in average temperature of between 1 and 2 degrees, and the subsequent melting of its glaciers), and not australia, this position might have some credibility. but unfortunately, it only makes him look narrow-minded and dogmatic to the point of stupidity.

whilst china continues to be written off as an evader of action to ameliorate climate change, those such as mr howard ignore the most important instrument of change we might yet have seen. the recent report, which serves as a backdrop to which china makes the aforementioned argument, is the first official assessment of the global impact of the actions of a developing china. it is an admission that their actions are having an effect on the world, and, importantly, domestically. the document makes mention that the glaciers that feed the yangtze (yellow) river, china's largest and most flood-prone waterway, are melting at a significant rate, and will likely have dimished two thirds from their current size by the end of this century.

this is an admimssion by china that their actions are having an effect. from here, other nations can begin to put pressures of isolation on china and possibly see some action taken in the not-to-distant future. the phenomena of an isolated china has, arguably, already borne fruit, in the form of a stronger stance being taken by china on the nuclear ambitions in iran. the word's newest power has now fallen largely in line with other members of the UN security council on the matter.

i am optimistic that this can, if there is the will, be the first steps in genuine measures taken to reduce the impact of mankind's impact on the environment. i don't think i am being entirely ignorant here.

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image: public