yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Factory to the World | Years of Living Dangerously


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[music playing]

SIGOURNEY WEAVER (VOICEOVER): China has changed a lot since I first came here in the late '70s. What used to be sleepy villages are now thriving mega cities. Back then, China's most valued asset was cheap labor, and so they became a factory to the world, growing their economy 70-fold in less than four decades. Think about that. Nothing like it has happened before in the history of mankind. To power it all, China built more than a thousand coal plants which contribute to an energy sector that pumps out an astounding 20% of the gases warming the planet.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: I like this one.

KEVIN MO: Try it. Nice. That looks nice on you. Is it me? Yeah?

KEVIN MO: Looks nice on you.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: Were you born in China?

SIGOURNEY WEAVER (VOICEOVER): Kevin Mo is a top climate adviser to the American and Chinese governments. He came down from Beijing to meet with me.

KEVIN MO: In the Walmart, a lot of "Made in China" stuff, exactly like here. That's why they are saying this is a factory of the world. Yeah. And so that's what China becomes now.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER (VOICEOVER): He tells me if China's going to quit coal, it will have to pivot away from so much reliance on manufacturing and dirty industry. So how will the economy have to adjust? How will it change? Well, now you have to transition it to a service-based economy, which is finance.

  • Finance.

  • IT.

OK. Insurance. Those kind of things.

Yeah, got it. It's not like energy intensified industries, like steel, cement, those kinds of things.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: Yeah, got it. So it's different. So if they can make that transition--

KEVIN MO: If they can make that transition, the economic growth will be more sustainable and consume less energy, but generate more revenues.

OK. In your opinion, can they do it? And can they do it as fast as they hope to?

KEVIN MO: Well, let's say this. If China doesn't make all these changes and still use the previous growth model, economic growth model, then the scenario would be by 2050, China's carbon emissions would be more than the current total carbon emissions in the world.

Oh my goodness.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER (VOICEOVER): That much carbon dioxide in the air would make life on earth unbearable. But Kevin claims China's leaders acknowledge this threat, and are making plans to ensure that doesn't happen. The problem is that if China shifts away from manufacturing, other countries-- including ones that burn lots of coal-- will be picking up the slack, and so the benefit to the climate is unclear.

More Articles

View All
One Einstein Is Worth A Legion Of PhD Drones
China keeps on graduating more Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Engineers than anywhere else in the world. We’re lagging behind China because their universities are pumping out more science graduates. They’re not pumping out more innovators. It’s not l…
"YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES!" - Smarter Every Day 142
Hey, it’s me Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. You won’t believe your eyes. You’ve heard this before, right? It’s usually like a clickbait title to get you to watch an internet video or read a stupid article. But are there cases when you actually…
Would You Choose Life On Earth Or in Space? #kurzgesagt #shorts
Spending your entire life in space. If there’s another planet suitable for humans, it will be quite a long journey to get there. Even traveling at one percent of the speed of light, it would still take 10,000 years to go only 100 light years. This means …
Adventurers Jim & Tori Baird on their son’s FOXG1 diagnosis, life in the wild | National Geographic
Wesley, as challenging as some of our days might be with him, I wouldn’t want to change him for the world because he is just the happiest little thing. My name is Jim Baird and I am Tori Baird. We have two boys, Wesley and Hudson. Wesley is just a little…
Finding equivalent ratios in similar quadrilaterals | Grade 8 (TX) | Khan Academy
We are told Lucas dilated quadrilateral ABCD to create quadrilateral WXYZ. So it looks like he rotated and zoomed in or made it or expanded it to get this other quadrilateral. The fact that we used these types of transformations like a dilation and it loo…
THE ART OF SLOW LIVING: SAVORING LIFE ONE MOMENT AT A TIME | STOICISM
In our relentless quest for more and faster, it’s astonishing how much of life’s profound beauty and depth we sacrifice. The Stoics believe that to live fully, one must not just bear life’s challenges but also cherish them. Each obstacle is a teacher, and…