| ▲ | triceratops an hour ago | |
> China is “greening” but we should be skeptical that it’s out of some lofty moral goal Why does the "why" matter? Tons of carbon are tons of carbon, right? That's what people say when you tell them about per-capita emissions. > they wouldn’t be hoarding the production of rare earth minerals and would be freely giving away technology for the sake of the planet. You can freely buy as many cheap panels and batteries and EVs and heat pumps from China as you like (unless your country is stupid enough to tariff or ban them). Those come with minerals. When they reach end-of-life they can be recycled. What exactly are they "hoarding" that the planet needs to go green? It hasn't prevented Pakistan or Vietnam from going ham on PV deployment. | ||
| ▲ | ericmay 6 minutes ago | parent [-] | |
> Why does the "why" matter? Well it doesn’t entirely matter but we should just acknowledge that it’s a geopolitical strategy and not really something they are doing for the planet. > You can freely buy as many cheap panels and batteries and EVs and heat pumps from China as you like (unless your country is stupid enough to tariff or ban them). Those come with minerals. When they reach end-of-life they can be recycled. What exactly are they "hoarding" that the planet needs to go green? It hasn't prevented Pakistan or Vietnam from going ham on PV deployment. Are you unfamiliar with China’s restrictions on rare earth exports for example due to alleged “dual use” as they continue to apply military pressure on democratic Taiwan? I’d encourage you to read up on these restrictions with respect to Japan for example who is alarmed by Chinese and North Korean provocations. You can buy so many cheap panels practically only from China because they subsidized the industry so other countries couldn’t compete and build their own solar panels. Har har tariffs and bans are responses to these anti-competitive strategies. It’s not just the US, by the way. The EU is tariffing China too. They are entitled to pursue these strategies but we are also entitled in the west to recognize them and combat them how we see fit. | ||