I have been wondering at the apparent contradiction between China's great strides in industrialization and economic growth, and the glaring disasters that China will face environmentally if they continue on the traditional Communist model that ignores the environmental consequences of such growth. I thought, how can they be so successful with their economic strategies and so damned oblivious to destroying China's biosphere? Or are they really?

For I also knew that China has become open to progressive environmental influences, and that Chinese scientists and various institutes had actually agreed on a collaboration project with the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, based at the University of Vermont (see: http://www.uvm.edu/giee/), and whose mission is to "transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries in order to address the complex interrelationships between ecological and economic systems in a broad and comprehensive way." To put it another way, the Gund Institute is a powerful proponent of Green Economics. This project took place this last Spring in China and was apparently a success. How much this has impacted Chinese official thought I have no idea. Perhaps other readers know more. But I got a big surprise when I read Tuesday that China now intends to invest 180 billion dollars in renewable energy resources over the next 15 years! This of course dwarfs the paltry sum Washington has voted to actually invest in renewable energy.

This is fantastic news, because think of the alternative, of say, a China following in the footsteps of the Bush Cartel environmentally. This would all but seal the fate of the planet, I'm afraid. But now China has seen the light, or at least some light. I used to live outside of Chinatown in San Francisco, and I always remarked what astute businessmen and women the Chinese are. And we have certainly seen that talent come to light globally recently. Now I am inspired to see that part of that astuteness is a growing awareness of how important the environment is. We should encourage China to do even more.

For more about China's renewable energy plans, see http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110805EB.shtml

Mac McKinney