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Chinese Eco-Cities
opencity writes "The Guardian is reporting on a deal by Arups, a British consulting firm, to build four eco-cities in China. The cities are to be self-sufficient in energy, water and most food products, with the aim of zero emissions of greenhouse gases in transport systems. The press release hints at some of the technology."
As China is one of the biggest polluters and is not bound by the Kyoto environmental treaty, having them take this step on their own initiative to create cleaner cities is certainly a welcome sight.
The cities are being developed by a British group, and I'm not sure how well that bodes for the final designs. Britain has some of the most "natural urban growth" cities in the Western world. It will be interesting to see how well they will be able to come up with something that is both ecologically friendly and unique and attractive.
Per capita they polluter much less then your average American... even your average european. So you condescending attitude is assinine. Europe and America used slave labour and virtually slave labour to industrialize as well as putting out massive pollution. China is trying to industrialize and modernize without the same harships and human suffering. There is significant amount of pollution in China but wiht 1.3 billlion people it's very hard not to. India is much worse, and per capita Canada is one of the worst with America coming in second.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Chinese factories may see this as a means to up their bargaining power in deals with environmental authorities. Something along the lines of "...why should we [ stop dirty smelting practises / pay increased pollution taxes / etc ] when our employees are living in an urban green zone?".
Then the environmental police will shoot them. One of the perks of being an authoritarian state. "It's good to be the king!"
(unless of course they're up-to-date on their bribes, in which case the environmental police will shoot the environmentalists that brought up the issue)
We live, as we dream -- alone....
The ability to do these things is probably the strength of China. Because the economy is run by the government, it has the ability to pursue these large-scale and exciting projects such as sending a man to the moon or creating ecological cities.
... the United States would never be able to put a man on the Moon. Only totalitarian states like Russia and China can do things like that. And I'm still waiting for those nations to come up with an exciting, large-scale global networking system so that we can all communicate freely with each other.
You're right
The reality is that central planning doesn't work if you want to have an efficient, progressive economy that is responsive to the needs of the people. China's government wants the benefits of industrialization, and they want them badly. The problem is finding a balance between a free market and their traditional heavy-handed autocratic control. Put it this way: advanced large-scale industrialization and the requisite foreign investment are unlikely companions to totalitarianism. It remains to be seen if they can pull it off, long term, without their form of government undergoing some significant changes. To a degree, it depends upon how successful they are at providing economic benefits to their people. It's really, really hard to get someone to willingly go back to a rice paddy when they've had a taste of a better life. My own feeling is that China's government has opened a can of worms, big ones, and that they may find it impossible to recan them.
The advantage the Soviet Union had over the United States in terms of space exploration (a terribly expensive proposition) was the ability to maintain a particular effort over the long haul. In the United States, our space development programs are at the whim of the current Congress and Administration, making it difficult to achieve anything that requires sustained investment. So yes, in that respect China will have a similar advantage as long as its leaders are able to maintain their focus.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I would readily agree to a contract where I'm not bound to do anything, too.
resigned
The inhabitants of this marvelous new city will sure be happy to be relieved of the burden of making their own choices, not to mention the constant disappointment of finding out they made the "unenlightened" choice again.
So we have this right wing utopia where the government lies to us to scare people into going along with whatever retarded scheme they've come up with this week. That keep photographers away from military caskets coming back to the states so people remain "unenlightened" of the true cost of war. That sets up prisons in foreign countries so they can torture people without being bothered by that pesky Bill of Rights, and expounds that the best way to balance the budget and help the poor is to grant massive tax cuts to the wealthy.
After the last 5 years of failed, miserable, lying, incompetent Republican rule you have no right to criticize anyone else's government.
At least they're doing something.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Yes, its called the difference between 'Poor' and 'Rich'.
I would rather be rich. (Although a hybrid SUV to save a bit on gas wouldn't hurt)
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
Agreeing with the other two posts about China's birth rates even being BELOW sustainable growth. They are actively enforcing a one child limit policy, and yet you're touting that the Chinese are having babies like fucking crazy, or at the very least that 1.3 billion people aren't allowed to pollute more than the us, which is more than 4x smaller? And still get modded insightful for it? You're an ignorant fucktwit.