Thomas Friedman, in his new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, has devoted an entire chapter to modern-day China and its problems and opportunities vis-à-vis the environment.

Briefly, while China modernizes and builds, migrates its millions from villages to cities, and increases its cars, power plants and factories, there are forces in China pushing it to become “green”. Edicts from high Government officials, implementation by provincial and municipal employees, and watchdog activities by concerned citizenry, including media people, have all started to act in concert.

The most exciting success story concerns electric bicycles and mopeds which have all but replaced petrol-driven ones. The owners of these clean, green vehicles merrily ride them all over the city during the day and then dutifully carry the batteries upstairs to their rooms or apartments to charge all night. Of course, there is still a residual carbon footprint in this activity because the electricity used in the overnight charging of these batteries, comes from coal fired power stations. But that is the challenge of the future, or in other words, is the next problem to be tackled.

The seventh richest businessman in China makes silicon photo voltaic cells which are renowned for both their high quality and low price. Although most of these solar cells are exported, there is a growing, internal demand in China for these energy-converting cells. Let’s hope that the trend continues.

Likewise, wind energy has been harnessed in some areas using windmills, and the air has been cleaned up by closing down inefficient, energy guzzling cement plants and replacing them with more efficient ones. Others have been relocated.

A model city, Dalian, is a high-tech city with a software park. The mayor of Dalian has taken pains to maintain air quality and keep the city “green”, because software developers are very conscious of good living conditions and are very mobile when it comes to changing jobs.

Finally, a lot remains to be done in the “greening” of China. Thomas Friedman, as an American, makes the point that the rest of the world, including China, plays “follow the leader”—the leader, as always, being America. If America can go green quickly and economically, the rest of the world will follow suit. It’s a project well worth pursuing.

 

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