China 'leapfrogs US to become biggest energy user'

China 'leapfrogs US to become biggest energy user'

www.bbc.co.uk

China has overtaken the United States to become the world's top energy consumer for the first time, a new report says.

Provisional figures from the International Energy Agency indicate that China's energy demand has doubled in a decade.

The IEA said China had taken first place because it was hit less hard than the US by the global financial crisis.

China challenged the report's findings, saying its figures were unreliable.

The US has been the biggest consumer of energy for more than 100 years. But China's rapid economic growth in the past two decades has pushed it into top spot

(visit the link for the full news article)

Anyone else simply amazed at how the Chinese have held their gigantic state together and kept in some part the momentum of growth going through the global downturn?

When viewed against the backdrop of Deepwater, M.E. crises, observations of increased tensions and hostility between US/Chinese military/navy, Chinese 'dumping' of the dollar/search for an alternative global currency, etc...I wonder whether there will ever be an overt expression of the tensions somewhere soon?

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yeah, we saw this coming. I believe it's slightly ahead of projections.

The tension in the ME is in huge part related to the creeping energy needs of both China and India.

China's economy is suffering...see last week's news. Overall, I'd say they'd be better suited putting some thought and innovation into getting into some alternative energy than into worrying about what currency they're using. They followed the U.S.'s path way too closely.

This is still a sad statement for our consumption rates in the US. China outnumbers us 4:1

Hopefully this news will take the corrupt executives out of America to go rich somewhere else.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Yes, not hearing as much from India it seems, they don't seem quite as active on the military/economic wrangles that appear to surround China (Korea(s), M.E., S.America, Dollar/debts, etc...) or is it just me? It would be great to see more posts about India's position...

Re: China looking at it's own energy sources, interestingly I've just been looking another new report, also from the BBC which I posted into an existing thread about the Three Gorges Dam - the biggest HEP dam in the world. [edit: link to ATS thread re three gorges dam

I know China are also looking at alternative energies, in fact I believe that may become another hot potato, as I understand that they currently are the source for more or less all of the 'rare earth' metals that are used in the most advanced and most popular new hybrid and electric vehicle motors, and generating turbines such as wind turbines. Point is, they could close down access to those and choose to use their 'unique' mineral deposits purely for their own domestic use, something that grows more likely as their middle/upper class consumer market grows, and tensions grow with 'old' external markets whilst 'new' external markets (S.America, Russia) may pick up any slack? Where would that then leave the USA and Europe?

Also, do we really want enough nuclear power plants built in China to replace their oil/coal useage any time soon, that worries me even more...



[edit on 20-7-2010 by curioustype]

[edit on 20-7-2010 by curioustype]

That is not all, before the year is over or by the beginning of the next year it will surpass America as the biggest economic producer . We are now to be relegated as an economic driven by spending, but that is also in danger as unemployment takes over.

China must stop this abuse of the planet now!

While the rest of the world desperately seeks to live within sustainable boundaries, Communist China feels they can simply use up all the resources of the planet to feed their insatiable empire. It is sickening.

reply to post by curioustype

India does things slightly differentl, both in what it says and how it participates, but they have many of the very same concerns and dependencies.. It seems to me China is imaging the U.S. far more in its path. But that too is probably only temporary. Thanks for the other link.

reply to post by zroth


Well, at least we can't yet say that China has caught up with your consumption levels, imagine the impact on the planet and other nations were that ever to happen (extremely unlikely IMO) - given their population of just over 1.3 billion (1,324,655,000 - 2008 Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators) outnumbers the USA 310 million or so (310,232,863 (July 2010 est.) source: CIA Factbook by a ratio of more than 4:1?

I suspect also that there may be limits to the levels of consumption, supply and demand, that can be generated at any one time by the world's/mankind's combined efforts, due to things like technology, logistics, conflict/security...so that a bigger story may be that consumption, like wealth, might migrate, so there may be some re-balancing out there, so whether the old big consumers on a downturn (USA, Europe) may lose access to resources that are redirected somewhere else on an upturn (China, S.America, Russia?) - now that will be more likely to effect me, more quickly I suspect than any environmental consequences, but then look at Deepwater...?

reply to post by mike_trivisonno

I agree, the risks being taken in China, environmentally and politically appear truly terrifying, to our eyes, but if you go and look into their perspective on this, and the history of interventions and the deliberate efforts of the west to both undermine, exploit and hold-back their development, for example by using such underhand means as creating/promoting/supplying an opiate addiction/infestation of their population or access to new technologies, whilst/so that we got first bite of the industrialised age cherry/wealth/living standards, paying scant regard to our impact on the environment and their needs in the process, especially between say 1800 and 1950, we do appear to have undermined our case for them to stop somewhat (at least in their eyes). What's more, their massive population is relatively very literate and most have been educated about this perspective on things.

reply to post by curioustype


It is a scary thought.

China and India are getting into the whole free market lie and to your point, there is not enough prodcut to satisfy that hunger at that level.

reply to post by marg6043

If there were no further major military (wars) or natural disaster events, and things continue to progress as we have seen them, come 2011/12, do you think it is perceivable that the USA could end up looking like Russia did after it lost the cold war? A large ex-superpower coming to terms with growing civil unrest/discord, unable to continue financing an enormous military and for that matter domestic budgets...struggling with border and territorial disputes, seeing it's influence over former allies and minions visibly falter as they struggle to align to new power and trade models? Should China manage to navigate past it's current weaknesses, could it not become the new key spender/player?

reply to post by curioustype


They will achieve economic superpower status, but is one thing that US have that China doesn't and that factor will make China vulnerable . . . oil.

Oil drives the world as today, the only reason US has not collapsed yet is its ability to produce oil. . .

And printing money, as our money is backed by that oil since the 70s.

And now you know (if you didn't already) why America will never, ever relenquish its military postion in the Middle East and Central Asia -- regardless of whether the president is a Democrat, Republican, or Howdy freakin' Doody -- unless utterly forced to by a Soviet-level collapse scenario.