Edmund Storms <stor...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > Pollution per dollar of GDP is down in both. China is making rapid > strides, adding nuclear and wind power. > > > That does not seem to translate into improvement. Last night the news > showed a picture from space where the pollution was clearly visible. >
It will translate into an improvement if they keep it up. They have 16 nuclear power plants, and they are building 30 more. I believe that is the fastest rate of expansion in the history of nuclear power, exceeding U.S. expansion in the 1970s. See: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html I do not think it would be wise to build them any faster. They are adding wind power faster than any other country. I think they are up to 60 GW nameplate, and the turbines are mostly in very windy places where the COP is high. Probably ~20 GW at least, which is roughly as much as those 16 nukes. 32 nukes worth of pollution-free energy is a lot! If they begin introducing electric cars they will soon reduce pollution even as they expand the economy. The U.S., Europe and Japan reduced pollution over the last 50 years. The Chinese can as well, and I think they intend to. Their energy efficiency is way up. - Jed
