Environment Manage

A special issue of National Geographic has China special issue. The pictures are excellent but the story is more interesting.

I suspect this is the reality in China - money and survival worries take precedent over the environment and summaries in one line why an international agreement on emissions will be very hard to reach.

H/T: China Economics Blog for the final paragraph

Most telling from an economic perspective is the final paragraph in response to a questionnaire sent out to the authors old students:

I asked what worried them the most. Several mentioned relationships; one woman wrote: "The marriage is not safe any more in China, it is more common for people around here to break up." A couple of respondents who now work far from home were concerned about their status as migrants. "I am like a foreigner in China," Willy wrote. But the most common source of worry seemed to be mortgage payments. "Ten years ago, I worried that I could not have a good and warm family," Belinda wrote. "Now I am worried about my loan at the bank." None of her classmates expressed concern about political reform, foreign relations, or any other national issue. Nobody mentioned the environment.