China Leaps Forward in the Green Revolution

With the world’s economies in the throes of recession, industry is at a “strategic inflection point,” according to Andy Grove, co-founder of Intel.  These inflection points are times when a company either invests during the down-cycle or faces eventual failure.  No world economy has grasped this idea as well as the Chinese.  The Chinese-appointed chief executive of Hong Kong informed author Thomas Friedman that “China was asleep during the Industrial Revolution.  She was just waking during the Information Technology Revolution.  She intends to participate fully in the Green Revolution.”

The Chinese government has taken a proactive stance in implementing projects in clean and sustainable energy.  They have recently signed a $5 billion deal with a California-based company for solar-thermal energy plants and have already approved plans for a deal twenty times the size of the original agreement.  In the meantime, American bureaucracy only managed to approve the first part of the application process for a plant in New Mexico constructed by the same company.

China is also facing a mass migration of its population from rural to urban areas.  In an effort to cut down on automobile greenhouse emissions, China is putting the finishing touches to a bullet train rail system featuring some of the fastest rail speeds recorded at 217 mph.  Also, the Chinese are expanding their nuclear power grid with plans to build fifty new reactors in the coming decade.  The rest of the world combined is expected to construct a maximum of fifteen.

Despite the economic troubles experienced around the world, China is adopting the right attitude towards environmental reform and preservation by investing in their future energy security.  If America does not begin to invest in its own energy security, we will soon find ourselves outpaced by a progressive China.