Recently, I traveled around China for three weeks visiting Beijing, Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and the Yantze. I do not think our civilization has ever experienced the development that is occurring now in China nor will it ever again.

At a toll booth stop on the outskirts of Chongqing (a metropolitan area of 33 million), I counted 50 tall cranes in the space of one minute. Did you know that over 50 percent of all the tall cranes in the world are in China now? The Three Gorges dam is almost one and a half football fields thick at the base and there are nine (Yes, nine!) cable bridges (similar to Vancouver's Fraser bridge) being installed across one section of the Yantze!

This growth is astounding and has raised the alarm of environmentalists worldwide. China's economy is growing at 10 percent plus per year and is creating an insatiable appetite for resources, including energy.

China is now the largest consumer of grain, meat, coal and steel and is second only to the US in oil consumption. China is currently commissioning one new coal plant per week and is planning three nuclear generating plants per year for the next three years.

The challenge in China is immense as China has more than 20 percent of the world's population, but is resource poor with the lowest fresh water per capita of only 25 percent of the world average; a biologically productive area per capita less than 60 percent of the global average, and 24 million acres of agricultural land (1/10th of the total arable land) is polluted. Currently, coal is used to produce 85 percent of China's energy. When the Three Gorges hydro comes on stream in 2008, hydro will make up about 15 percent of total energy. The challenge is to replace existing dirty coal production and add new generating capacity to deal with this immense growth.

Ironically, the largest part of this growth is caused by Western countries demanding products from China. Let me repeat: we, in North America, are a large part of the cause. Our consumption is resulting in the growth and pollution in China. North Americans use six times more energy and Europeans three times more energy per capital than people in China. North Americans consume more than four times more resources than can be replaced by nature (almost 10 acres per person are required versus 1.8 acres sustainable) and therefore exploit the resources of less developed countries.

I believe the use of energy crops is a disaster, almost fraudulent. About 20 percent of corn  production in the US next year will be used to produce ethanol and over half of all sugar production in Brazil is used to produce ethanol. The conversion of crops to energy is driven by a new policy introduced in the US that provides a 51 cent per gallon subsidy for ethanol and one dollar for biodiesel, neither of which provide any meaningful saving in hydrocarbon consumption. Over 4 million hectares in Sumatra and Borneo have been cleared for energy crops and a further 6 million hectares are scheduled for clearance in Malaysia and another 16.5 million hectares are planned to be cleared in Indonesia for energy production. As a result, corn has already doubled in price and in Mexico white corn is in short supply and the price has quadrupled!

The poor people of the world cannot afford the additional cost of food created by our over consumption of energy in the West. Cornell University says that more than 3 billion people suffer from malnutrition with food production decreasing due to a 20 percent decline in per capita cropland and a 15 percent decrease in water for irrigation.

Tipping the scales
My experience has caused me to reflect on various discussions over the past year or so regarding concerns that growth in China and India will tip the environmental scale into a crisis. First of all, we should be clear that we are already in a crisis with a negative ecological footprint of at least 30 percent; that is, we are currently consuming 30 percent more resources than nature can replace.

In many respects, China is substantially ahead of North America in implementing clean energy  technologies in all sectors. Canada ranks fourth in the world when it comes to gobbling up resources, behind the UAE, the US and Finland.

The world population has grown from 3.5 billion since 1972 to the present 6.5 billion and is projected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050. Every year 91 million humans are born in excess of those that die, representing an increase of one billion people every 11 years. Our ecological footprint was a sustainable 90 percent in 1972 and is now about 130 percent. Population growth is clearly the most critical issue facing our civilization.

The following very sobering statistics give some indication of the kind of stresses we are likely to create as a civilization as the developing countries increase their standard of living and consumption and close the gap with the Western world: The average North American born in the 1990s will produce in a lifetime approximately 2.2 million lbs. of atmospheric wastes; 22 million pounds of liquid wastes; 2.2 million lbs. of solid wastes; use 4,000 barrels of oil (or equivalent) and will eat 55,000 lbs. of meat involving the slaughter of about 2,000 animals. And this is just one person!

As Canadians, we should not, and cannot, sit back and point fingers at the Chinese or anybody else; we must address our own consumptive behavior.

There is hope in the US as a powerful youth movement seems to be developing at college campuses and is having an impact in everything from the purchase of local food for cafeterias, clean energy, green construction and influencing politicians with the addition of 2 million new, young voters at the polls. A recent survey found that one-third of American drivers are planning on getting a more fuel efficient car.

There is a very major challenge in Canada at the political level due to the major imbalance in CO2 emissions between the provinces. Alberta currently generates about 43 percent of CO2 emissions in Canada as almost all of its energy is produced from hydrocarbons; whereas, Quebec and Newfoundland produce about 95% of their energy from hydropower. This CO2 imbalance will increase substantially with a tripling of tar sands production in Alberta; any carbon trading system would create an immense transfer of funds from the large CO2 emitting provinces (ie. Alberta and Saskatchewan) to Quebec and Newfoundland with some estimates totaling in excess of $10 billion annually. Can Canada step up to the plate and lead by example?

Bayne E. Boyes is the President & CEO of Health Action Network Society. He is extermely passionate about all health and environmental issues, particularly climate change. Bayne has a background in management accounting and was president of BC and subsequently chairman of the Certified Management Accountants of Canada. Bayne was awarded fellowship by the CMAs in 1988 also granted the Life Member award in 2004 for BC CMAs, the highest award granted by the BC Society.

Want to search for other articles that may interest you?

Readers of this article also enjoyed...