This year seems to be year when, finally, those individuals and countries who have for so long been using so many resources started to realise that, though these people and countries are still the richest countries, they are going to have to change.
There just are not enough resources (especially at current ways of using them) to provide a 'good standard of living' (aka Western standard of living) for everyone. So the more we life the poor out of poverty, the more they are going to be putting us into poverty, by making everything we want to buy more expensive. Fantastic irony!
Who would have thought that China could force the Americans to use less oil, simply by using more oil themselves! Who could have thought that one possible solution to the West's obesity crisis is developing countries increasing obesity crisis? Unfortunately what is more likely is that Westerners and Developing countries will just eat more processed food, unhealthily cooked food and get lazier and lazier.
Apparently 22% of Chinese are obese. If they are, then how am I still alive.... their level of obesity must be somewhat different to us 'Westerners'!
So as the World starts to realise that we are all using too much energy, too much water, too much food and too many other resources (and the world's population continues to grow, now at 6.6bn) what is going to happen? Well, individuals will complain to their politicians; politicians will be expected to do something -i.e. complain to other countries and the World will continue to make no progress.
Thankfully good old capitalism should come to our rescue as all these higher prices for scarcer commodities create incentives for people to find better alternatives. And this is why China is always in the news: not just because it is causing all these price rises, but because it must be at the forefront of any new ideas. Otherwise there are hundreds of millions of people who will not be able to afford what they want, and what they expect!
Today i felt like i had to write something positive, because the greyness has been so depressing and unbearable. A few hours of rain clears the skies...but the next day the smog is back. Just as everything seemed to be getting better -and should be getting better because of the Olympics, it is pretty clear that is not. So, though all cars and factories and who knows what else will be banned during the Olympics; there is no way that is a sustainable solution. So we can all look forward to the return, and increasing, smog after the Olympics.
But, to be positive.... many of the new technologies in factories and boilers are permanent, more efficient, 'cleaner', and new subway lines are coming online... and, well, tomorrow we are screening a film that shows that nature can heal itself incredibly quickly and better than we could ever believe (if we leave it alone and let it). www.earthshope.org is a glimpse that maybe there is hope yet!
In the meantime, the Chinese are starting to realise they cannot blame the West -because that will not solve the problem. They have to shut-up and get on with solving these many problems, because, they are the ones who will suffer! And simultaneously, the West is going to realise (as they have started to by investing in carbon reducing projects in the developing world) that they key to our own survival is really, truly, helping developing countries overcome these global problems.
Usually, if you wanted to be a hermit and ignore the rest of the World through TV, internet, Phones and World Cups, you could do...to be a part of globalisation you had to be active (indeed, unfortunately, many in Africa are denied the opportunity to actively take part in globalisation through trade subsidies and poor governments) but now, now we are realising we cannot even be passive and ignore globalisation -because our food, energy and water are getting more expensive, our climate is changing and new health epidemics are constantly on the horizon that we cannot avoid.
China and the West. So different, yet so similar.
