The New York Times | April 20, 2006
http://www.iht.com//articles/2006/04/20/opinion/edchina.php
How's this for nerve? The leader of a country that consumes more
than 20 million barrels of oil a day is warning the leader of a
country that consumes 6.5 million barrels not to try to lock up
world oil resources. With President George W. Bush welcoming the
Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to the White House on Thursday, the
American complaint was expected to be that China's appetite for oil
affects its stance on Iran, Sudan and other trouble spots.
In other words, China is acting just like everyone else: subjugating
its foreign policy to its energy concerns. The United States does
it, too - witness its long-running alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Still, the size of China's population - 1.3 billion people - puts
things into an alarming context. China recently overtook Japan as
the world's second-biggest consumer of oil. Its real gross domestic
product is growing at 8 to 10 percent a year, and its need for
energy is projected to increase by about 150 percent by 2020.
China's move from bicycles to cars has accelerated its oil
consumption; by 2010, China is expected to have 90 times the number
of cars it had in 1990, and it will probably have more cars than
America by 2030.
That leaves the world with two options. The first is to manage
energy resources better. The other is to look for another planet.
Simply continuing the current trends isn't viable, especially with
the growing needs of India, with its one billion people and a
growing economy of its own.
The United States doesn't have the right to tell a third of humanity
to go back to their bicycles because the party's over. Clearly, Bush
and Hu must tackle energy in a real and meaningful way. That can be
done only if the United States both helps China find alternative
energy sources and shows that America is doing the same thing itself.
The best possible course would be for China to leapfrog an oil-based
economy and head toward sustainable alternative fuels, just as other
countries are jumping past the construction of land lines for
telephone service and going straight to wireless systems. China has
a lot of biomass - crops, forests and wood products - that could be
converted into ethanol.
China, like America, has a lot of coal. But the world can't afford
for it to go ahead with a proposal to build hundreds of coal-fired
power plants; that would be an environmental disaster. The United
States can help stave that off by sharing clean coal technology.
None of this cooperation will work unless the United States provides
leadership by making sacrifices of its own. Asking other countries
to lay off the world's oil supply so America can continue to support
its gas-guzzling Hummers doesn't really cut it.
How's this for nerve? The leader of a country that consumes more
than 20 million barrels of oil a day is warning the leader of a
country that consumes 6.5 million barrels not to try to lock up
world oil resources. With President George W. Bush welcoming the
Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to the White House on Thursday, the
American complaint was expected to be that China's appetite for oil
affects its stance on Iran, Sudan and other trouble spots.
In other words, China is acting just like everyone else: subjugating
its foreign policy to its energy concerns. The United States does
it, too - witness its long-running alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Still, the size of China's population - 1.3 billion people - puts
things into an alarming context. China recently overtook Japan as
the world's second-biggest consumer of oil. Its real gross domestic
product is growing at 8 to 10 percent a year, and its need for
energy is projected to increase by about 150 percent by 2020.
China's move from bicycles to cars has accelerated its oil
consumption; by 2010, China is expected to have 90 times the number
of cars it had in 1990, and it will probably have more cars than
America by 2030.
That leaves the world with two options. The first is to manage
energy resources better. The other is to look for another planet.
Simply continuing the current trends isn't viable, especially with
the growing needs of India, with its one billion people and a
growing economy of its own.
The United States doesn't have the right to tell a third of humanity
to go back to their bicycles because the party's over. Clearly, Bush
and Hu must tackle energy in a real and meaningful way. That can be
done only if the United States both helps China find alternative
energy sources and shows that America is doing the same thing itself.
The best possible course would be for China to leapfrog an oil-based
economy and head toward sustainable alternative fuels, just as other
countries are jumping past the construction of land lines for
telephone service and going straight to wireless systems. China has
a lot of biomass - crops, forests and wood products - that could be
converted into ethanol.
China, like America, has a lot of coal. But the world can't afford
for it to go ahead with a proposal to build hundreds of coal-fired
power plants; that would be an environmental disaster. The United
States can help stave that off by sharing clean coal technology.
None of this cooperation will work unless the United States provides
leadership by making sacrifices of its own. Asking other countries
to lay off the world's oil supply so America can continue to support
its gas-guzzling Hummers doesn't really cut it.
--
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