Holding the paradox of sustainable development in China

Looking at the China Dialogue website recently (an amazing site that brings together English and Mandarin news and ideas about the environment), I was struck, once again, by the paradox that is China. Especially when it comes to sustainable development. The site itself admits to China being the 'yin and the yang' of Climate Change; a nuanced position which the gross simplicities of the international climate debate often ignore. Here are some examples - and as China increasingly becomes one of the most important economic - and, quite possibly, cultural - forces, these perspectives are quite important.

On the one hand, Beijing has published its first map of traffic noise, drawing attention to noise pollution. On the other hand, Beijing's population has a growing addiction to cars - estimating 2,000 car sales a day, or 4 million new cars on the road by the year's end. This won't exactly help noise pollution.

China has one of the fastest growing wind and solar production sites in the world, and are gaining ground in technological advances - key for sustainable development. They've also cornered the market of rare earth metals, which are key for wind turbines and other sustainable technologies. But they are still producing coal plants - fueling the factories that produce things for Western markets (and increasingly their own markets).

Just last week (September 21) UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) named China an 'environmental leader' - because they planted 2.6 billion trees. However, they've also destroyed vast amounts of forests both within China and in other parts of the world, such as in Laos, and have partaken in the export of old growth forests in the Congo. In the case of felling old growth in the Congo, the official line is that it is the consumer who should pay attention to where the wood comes from (and reduce demand for it) not the supplier.

China's also got the world's most extensive rain creation infrastructure. They seed clouds, making it rain. A whole new meaning to the 'rain maker'. They employ about 50,000 people nationwide, usually to alleviate droughts in the arid north of the country. I must admit, that in terms of sustainable development, being able to control the rain is quite appealing. Indeed, manmade rain was considered by Mao Zedong to be one of the most important ways to control nature. Occaisionally, they clear the skies to make it nice and sunny for big events - such as October 1 (this Thursday) the celebration of the Founding of the People's Republic of China. For this celebration, they are tightening down on pollution (it won't due to have a pollution attack - it might, er, smog the mood). One thing is for sure- China cares a great deal about how the rest of the world sees it. And it is comfortable trying to control nature. But these days, even the Chinese military admits that there are limits to how much it can control the weather.

You don't say. And the paradox is that this is all happening within a culture that values moderation and 'the middle way'. Though these days, I'm less sure about what 'middle' really means.