Can the World Sustain the Growth of China's Capitalism?

china1.2.jpg Over the past year, China's environmental devastation has quickly morphed from a future concern into an immediate crisis. The country's skyrocketing economic development, fueled by multinational corporations, has wreaked environmental havoc on the country (and the rest of us). It's now much easier for Americans to buy cheap cashmere sweaters and Ikea dining sets from China—"cheap" for consumers, at a big cost for Mother Earth.

For more on China's environmental demise and the effect it is having on the globe, see Mother Jones' January 2008 feature. And don't miss this revealing photo essay as well as various sidebars exploring Chinese citizen protests, deforestation, and other issues.

The country's environmental problems, in part, stem from governmental rule and lack of accurate information. Fortunately, international NGOs have been instrumental in gathering and disseminating trustworthy data for Chinese non-profits, and public awareness is growing on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, but it needs to grow faster. Chinese's per capita income is only 1/10 of Americans', which means if they ever reach our level of wealth and consumption, several Earths will be needed to provide resources.

Stay tuned for ongoing coverage on this subject at The Blue Marble. Here's a teaser. You won't believe which country Chinese president Hu Jintao said should be responsible for cutting the world's CO2 emissions. Take a guess in the comments.

Comments

What do you mean "China's Capitalism" ??? This is about consumption, materialism and consumerism. It's got little to do with "capitalism". You shouldn't be so knee jerk to attack business, which is what I presume you're doing.

Posted by: Rodney U on 12/12/07 at 6:04 PM Respond

What exactly does "China's Capitalism" mean? Isn't China still a communist country? Same regime in power now that was there when we here in the US called them "Red China"?

And Rodney, I don't think Jennifer is attacking business. She seems to be talking about exactly what you mentioned: consumerism, materialism, consumption.

Posted by: Rob J on 12/12/07 at 7:35 PM Respond

Capitalism is consumerism. Fascists... capital...ism...the individual or group-specific propriety or ownership of capital whether it is land, labor, or resources. Some hardcore capitalists still don't understand the philosophy they so thoroughly are indoctrinated into...

Posted by: Mark on 12/12/07 at 8:44 PM Respond

Actually, I thought "The Story of Stuff" did an excellent job of explaining the answer to this.

No.

This planet cannot support economic growth. Though we have energy coming in, in the form of sunlight, our other resources, ignoring the relatively low quantity of asteroid and comet impacts, are relatively fixed.

We must continue to cycle things for sustainability. To imagine that our consumerism can be sustainable is to live in a dream world. One might just as readily believe in god and that god will continue to provide us with more resources. It's a fantasy.

Let's also remember that while China is producing more and more stuff with a growing economy and horrifically growing impact on the planet, they are doing it to feed OUR consumerism far more than their own. So, the U.S. is still behind much of the crap that China is doing simply by our shop to save the world mentality.

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 12/14/07 at 7:02 AM Respond

China is replacing its dirty coal power plant with nuclear plants from France. America should do the same and stop blaming China.

Posted by: Major PLA on 12/19/07 at 11:13 AM Respond