...we'll probably have a few nuclear accidents in China before all's said and done.

Still, you have to give the Chinese government credit. Unlike OUR government, they appear to be somewhat more realistic about the impending decline in world fossil-fuel production. Nuclear power plants throughout the country may be dangerous in some theoretical long-run..but in the short run, those plants will supply electricity as stocks of fossil-fuel run short.

What are WE doing to protect ourselves? Fighting an utterly pointless war in Iraq.

People who say that war was for oil are deluding themselves. Or, at least deluding themselves about what a "war for oil" in this era of multinational, stateless oil companies actually means.

Just because American oil companies get the lion's share of Iraqi oil at some future date, doesn't mean the United States will get that oil. Au contraire...those oil companies will sell to the highest bidder, as they always have. Hell, all that oil in Iraq could go to China, if they pay more than we're willing to.

That's the reality no-one talks about. Once oil is out of the ground, it's in a world-market, and it can go anywhere.

and anyone who thinks the chinese were so stupid as to let us have all that Iraqi oil...think again. The chinese are lot more hip to reality than our leaders are. Which is, I believe, where I came in...tootle-oo...

The nuclear plants will go some way to rectifying it.

And the various food contamination scares could have long term effects for them - "Chinese Food is poison" is now firmly fixed in the western conciousness.

The Three Gorges Project on its own is probably the largest civil engineering project in the history of earth. China's hydroelectric potential is massive beyond massive. Setting aside the huge ecological effects of dam projects on this scale they could, given the time and capital probably offset a large portion of their demand allocated to nuclear plants. Much of the remainder could in theory at least be provided by Helium pebble slurry technology which can't meltdown and can't produce weapons fuel. But, the obstacles to the scale of the hydroelectric requirements and the nuclear requirements are daunting. Seems the devil will get his due one way or the other.

It's easy to dismiss that article from the Chinese press because of the overheated language, but that would be to view it out of context.

It needs to be stressed what a different voice that is from the usual oversupply of "pay special attention to" and "China's peaceful development" in the mainland press.

There are lots of Chinese who are getting to that Howard Beale moment of sticking heads out windows and yelling "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Interesting times. I often wonder what the ghost of Mao will think when the Chinese people _really_ stand up...

Most sources I've found suggest that China's existing air pollution problem kills hundreds of thousands of Chinese prematurely every year - WorldWatch (link in signature) suggests 400,000 annually.

Even if you take the hyperbolic estimates from, say, Greenpeace, that 100,000-odd casualties have/will result from Chernobyl, a Chernobyl accident every year would prove less injurious to the health of the Chinese people than their existing fuel sources.

The weather in my town in southern China right now is cloudless but I wouldn't call it "sunny." The sky is yellow, not gray or blue. I can't even see the sun. Note that it's just past mid-day.

Nuclear power plants might relieve some of this, who knows? They haven't exactly stopped building coal-fired plants, either. Or highways. In fact, the local government has all but banned mopeds, motorcycles, bicycles, and other eco-friendly modes of transport, because they put forward such a "third world" image. Didn't you know people in Real Developed Nations drive *cars*? (They also apparently eat fish and vegetables that taste kind of like licking a rusty tin can, as I occasionally experience.)

There's no danger of the Chinese economy "overheating" because it's basically on fire already. God help us when it runs out of wood.

I thought, from the headline, we were talking about the United States... we can't protect OUR food supply and yet we're talking about engaging in a massive program of building nukes throughout the country.

So, who are we to throw stones at the Chinese?

BTW, we also can't guarantee the safety of our drugs, can't commit to alternative fuel sources other than nuclear, can't guarantee the safety of our air space, can't maintain our borders, can't reduce emissions, can't increase fuel efficiency, can't...

Yeah, can you imagine how many US officials would die if we put them to death for taking bribes, engaging in outright conflicts of interest and blatant corruption? And how many would fit the bill who are in positions ostensibly about protecting the public welfare?

How many FDA officials do you suppose are inappropriately "influenced" by pharma companies?

Hmmm.

That's a lot of body bags.