China's Engine of Environmental Collapse

As the world hurtles towards environmental oblivion, China is leading the charge. The country''s CO2 emissions are more than double those of the US yet its GDP is just two-thirds as large. China leads the world in solar and wind energy generation but it''s building new coal-fired power plants even faster than renewables. The country''s lakes, rivers and aquifers are severely polluted. Twenty percent of China''s farmland has been declared too toxic to farm. Yet this ''socialist'' government still prioritizes growth over the environment. Why is China''s environmental crisis so much worse than ''normal'' capitalism most everywhere else, and why can''t China''s fiercely authoritarian government suppress pollution from its own industries? Richard Smith argues China''s economy is driven by extra-economic nationalist-industrialist imperatives which are more powerful than the maximization of profit. Yet both Western capitalism and China''s ''communist-capitalism'' are racing each other to apoc