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China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor
eldavojohn writes "Details are limited but state media is reporting on $75 million being put into a new research facility
in Qingdao, Shandong Province that will conduct research into mining the sea floor. From the article: 'Scientists believe sea beds at a depth of 4,000 to 6,000 meters hold abundant deposits of rare metals and methane hydrate, a solidified form of natural gas bound into ice that can serve as a new energy source.' The research center's first goal is to do surveying and exploration with a new submersible named 'Jiaolong' (a mythical aquatic Chinese dragon). Hopefully these quests yield energy resources to meet growing demand for resources like liquefied coal in China."
Releasing even more of one of the most effective greenhouse gasses (methane)..
Anyone who is serious understands we can't keep gobbling up resources the way the West has been since WWII. Yet no one stops to think that moving to the suburbs and having kids is a huge contributor to the demand for resources.
The only good thing is that things will start getting more and more expensive as oil gets harder and harder to get, and therefore anything that depends on cheap energy (everything) starts getting not so cheap.
The next 50 years will be interesting, to say the least.
Except pollution isn't created per capita. Most Chinese people don't produce more pollution than their ancestors did a century or a millennium ago, because they're not part of the global economy - they're stuck in the feudal economies of their areas, outside the cities, factories and mines that really pollute. Even without consuming much more than they did before indoor plumbing and the quality of life that they're stuck in. The US, meanwhile, counts nearly every resident in the global economy.
The actual measure is pollution per output. China consumes more energy than the US now, produces much more Greenhouse pollution, and vastly more pollution that isn't Greenhouse emissions. Yet China produces only 1/3 the output of the US. China therefore pollutes a lot more than 6x the amount the US pollutes per output.
Other countries also look better than they really are. China and the US together produce about 1/3 the total global output, much more than other countries do per capita. That output is consumed around the world. Those other people are outsourcing their pollution to the US and China, just as the US has outsourced much of its worst pollution to China.
All of which shows that markets have done nothing but shuffle pollution around to the lowest bidder. Which is why the people create governments to protect ourselves from getting dumped on when it's free.
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make install -not war
It's not about better or worse. The government requiring corporations (and people, by extension) to pay compensation for damage done to the environment doesn't interfere with the market any more than enforcing property rights does.
(+1, Disagree)
While this research takes place in largely uncontested Yellow sea, any success could very well bolster the Chinese government's hawkish stand on naval borders.
The disputes with Japan and Taiwan are well known. It recently claimed sovereignty of regions of the South China Sea that are well beyond common UN agreements on sovereignty and openly challenged by ASEAN neighbors.
Even the Yellow Sea is not without conflict, in which even the US is directly involved. At the heart of the matter is what the article calls ``one element in what appears to be an attempt to turn the seas near it into a Chinese lake''.
They really are not. I just had a friend who got back in June from spending a month there. She was part of NOAA's group to study the pollution that is being emitted around the world. Oddly enough 7-10% of the air pollution in LA, CA, is from China. What they found is that all of the coal plants had scrubbers on them, but the ALL OF THE 150 PLANTS THAT THEY MEASURED WERE TURNED OFF. ALL. In addition, she said that it appeared that a number of them had never been turned on. Now, China is required by treaty with Japan, to scrub the coal, but apparently, the real wording was in Chinese and basically said that all plants had to have scrubbers. It NEVER said that they were required to be on. And China is still on pace to keep opening 1-2 new coal plant EACH WEEK. The ONLY thing that is going to slow this down is if the west will get smart. We need to tax ALL GOODS BASED ON WHERE THEY, and their primary component, COME FROM AND AMOUNT OF CO2, and ideally mercury, that is EMITTED FROM THAT REGION. Now, the SMART THING is to base it on the amount of emissions PER SQ KM. Sadly, EU wants it based on per capita, which is absolutely the worst metric going. It is impossible to track ppl and they float around. It will also lead to lying, as well as simple encourage ridiculous stats. BUT, by doing a per km^2, then it provides set limits for a nation and then they can manage it regardless. It also makes it easy for ALL OTHER NATIONS TO VERIFY IT.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.