China Dispatches 60,000 Soldiers to Plant Trees
I hope you’ll check out this video, which depicts both the brutal reality of China’s air quality, and some level of hope for the future.
60,000 soldiers is a lot of manpower, regardless of where it’s coming from. Had they come from the U.S military, they’d represent about 5% of the total. But these are from China, and represent only about 2% of the 2.3 million total. Regardless, that is a peck of trees. Best of luck.
It’s great that China is starting to take an initiative to fix the damage that we have done to this planet. America should follow in their footsteps if we want to be able to completely fix what we’ve done though. the only issue with that is Trump.
Craig and Susan,
Why are you so willing to believe such obvious green-washing propaganda stunts ?
Mostly these events are organized for consumption by gullible Western media, in reality China is increasing emissions at a depressingly alarming rate.
Reforestation projects are far more complex than planting trees by a bunch of troops with no experience in forest husbandry. Re-establishing a healthy forests on a large scale requires complex and highly skilled planning and experienced management for many years.
Projects such as this are mere show pieces with very or little chance of any measurable success and after the initial publicity are quickly forgotten.
Why are you so contemptuous of President Trumps very practical, and very real, progress toward getting both China and the US to develop and adopt clean(er) Coal technology ?
November 2017, President Trump on his own initiative obtained historic commitments from China, India, South Korea, Indonesia and the OAS to a cooperate with the US to pool resources in developing and advancing clean coal technology.
This initiative could mean a real major reduction in measurable emissions.
Beijing continues to fund coal installations abroad, not only across its sphere of influence but also in Europe. According to a new tally, Chinese companies are building or intending to build over 821 new coal plants domestically and abroad, from Indonesia to Pakistan to Turkey.
One Chinese energy conglomerate is even discussing a $2.2 billion investment in a coal power scheme in Bosnia, one of the largest energy projects in Balkans.
Unfortunately, none of the Chinese built coal installations outside of China incorporate advanced technology, not even highly efficient ultra-supercritical boilers.
Up until the election of President Trump, the US kept providing funding aid for new Chinese built coal fired power plants in countries like Pakistan or Indonesia. The rationale was that these nations would otherwise rely on highly polluting sources like kerosene or wood.
President Trump’s initiative is already paying of with China replacing the older and cheaper, highly pollutant technology scheduled for a new coal plant under construction in Africa with the same technology as is employed in China’s latest high spec, hi Tech, Waigaoqiao No 3 plant, free of charge after representations from President Trump.
Normally not a fan of the US President, Bill Gates, agreed with the President’s initiative. Speaking on behalf of his own $3 billion Clean Energy Fund, pointed out:
“Even as we push to get serious about confronting climate change, we should not try to solve the problem on the backs of the poor. They can’t afford today’s expensive clean energy solutions, and we can’t expect them to wait for the technology to get cheaper. We owe it to the planet to encourage clean coal technology”