this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Per capita is the only rational way to make comparisons between countries. China is also still largely a manufacturing economy rather than a service economy, and nevertheless it's outperforming Canada and the USA.
Being patriotic sometimes means demanding more from your country not just pretending you're better against the facts.
China's climate action is far more effective, and there are myriad non-partisan organizations ranking it higher than the US and Canada. We're not taking their word for it, it's independently verified.
But sure, start from the conclusion that CHINA BAD and pretend USA is rosy, that'll bring some comfort as we continue to build long-term fossil fuel infrastructure and ship LNG overseas for the next few decades.
Continuing to build coal plants in 2024 isn't just "pretending you're better".
Liquid natural gas production in the US and Canada is rapidly increasing, and although the carbon emissions of burning it are lower than that of coal, methane leakage in the extraction and supply process is a huge problem. Methane is 40x worse as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide.
The only methane leakage numbers that are reported are opt in and self reported. As little as single digit % losses put the environmental impact of natural gas at higher than coal. The self reported numbers are very close to this figure. Many places aren't reporting. Detecting leakage is a very hard problem requiring very expensive equipment all over the supply chain.
In addition, we're building special infrastructure in the form of pipelines, refineries, special cargo ships, and special ports to ship LNG overseas. We're calling it a "bridge fuel" while renewables catch up, but these are decades long projects that are in progress.
Both could be doing better, but China is putting their innovation and money into solar and EVs, and we're putting ours into different fossil fuels.
Give up your blind nationalism and do some research.
I can accept that the US is doing bad things. Can you accept that China is doing bad things?
My thesis is that China is doing better. 50th in the world compared to 60th isn't a celebration of their success.
China scores extra points because they make literally everything we all consume.
Can you concern yourself with how to do more instead of whataboutism?
We should celebrate China subsidizing BYD and solar technology
Here: a fun way for you to learn more https://youtu.be/K2oL4SFwkkw?si=I0_Q7qsW19H0Xg52
Maybe you'll trust an American academic's comedy climate channel over me.