China to clean up environment - with a little help, of course.

China's big clean up

The country's 27-year-old economic boom has left its waterways and coastlines severely polluted by industrial and farm chemicals and domestic sewage. Its countryside is littered with garbage and construction waste, and its cities suffocated by smog.

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The centerpiece of the Shanghai chemical park — home to major international companies such as energy giant BP Plc, Bayer AG, Degussa AG and BASF AG of Germany — is a $2.73 billion, 900,000 ton-per-year ethylene cracker, a joint venture between BP and Sinopec.

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"China now realizes that environmental cleaning is part of development," said Jean-Louis Chaussade, executive vice president of Suez SA in charge of Suez Environment. "It's an enormous objective. It's huge and it will take a generation," he said.

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Environmental Kuznets Curve in action...development only runs amok as long as folks are willing to accept the consequences. Then, the pressure builds to develop more cleanly.

Environmental Kuznets Curve in action

...Then the Enviroment becomes a movement that validates people's sense of worth. They demand levels of adherence which are irrational, not even supported by science. For example, anthropogenic Global Warming, 10 micron emissions, and placeing dangerous predators near humans.

At first capital flees in order to contain costs. Sooner or later a new equilibrium is established, the people who want to feel good about themselves are chastened and rendered politically weak and we have a sane balance.

I guess there is some sort of dialectical synthesis going on here, but more likely people learn the forgotten art of COMPROMISE. Which we should have tried back in the 1800s when British Courts dismissed pollution lawsuits.

In the absence of damage there is no cause to interfere.

Ain't quite made it here in the US. We're working on it.

Gene