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Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by avar on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @05:02AM (#14643507)
How is the US not improving as well? Renewable energy usage went up from ~9% to ~13% from 2002 to 2013[1]. The growth in photovoltaics continues[2]. The portion of electric cars as part of the fleet is going up[3] etc.

It is true that the US could be doing better, but it's not doing the opposite of what China is doing when it comes to energy & environmental improvements.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_United...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_photovoltaics

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by mattmanser on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @05:24AM (#14643607)
Trump just pulled out of the Paris climate accord. It was in the news for days?
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by soundwave106 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @11:20AM (#14646187)
Trump may make the national optics look bad, but that doesn't change the optics completely at the state and city level.

For instance, on the renewable energy angle, according to the American Wind Energy Organization, five states now regularly generate 20%+ of their energy from wind. (http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber...) That number would've been unthinkable 10 years ago.

(Note that the windy states tend to be Republican voting rural mid-west ones. That doesn't mean that Trump isn't going to stop mocking wind energy (as he just recently did). Rather, it does mean there is bipartisan support in these states for wind energy, and that Trump's negative comments on wind in Iowa didn't go down very well with Iowans and Iowa politicians from both sides of the aisle -- https://apnews.com/a2b500b82d5a44eeb9759ca31d0b4a33)

Having a national leader that seems hostile to anything environmental certainly doesn't help matters, but it's not all doom and gloom.

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by Shivetya on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @07:36AM (#14644387)
A fake treaty based on hype and slogans. whose temperature goals when overlaid with existing models shows no change. a fake treaty which allows each nation to set their own goals, change them at will, and no fines or similar mechanisms to insure compliance? A treaty which then veered off into rules on gender equity, biodiversity, disabled people, migrants, and a just transition of work forces.

as in, it was propaganda act by politicians who used ignorance of what it stood for so you would think they were doing something about it when they were doing absolutely nothing. it had no power of enforcement because they could not even come to an agreement of who would be allowed to enforce it. when you let the fox set the rules the chickens outcome does not change.

it was worse than no treaty. with no treaty people can be brought back to the table and iron out one that has limits that apply equally to all nations with an agreed to enforcement. (per capita limits are the means some countries used to skirt any impact they have on the world)

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by angersock on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @01:49PM (#14647560)
Luckily for us and the environment, that's more a talking point than a policy point.
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by AlgorithmicTime on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @06:47AM (#14644049)
Until that actually causes the US to stop increasing the proportion of renewable energy, I'm skeptical it's an issue.
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by oh_sigh on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @01:56PM (#14647625)
I'm curious if you believe there is any room for people who care about the environment, but thought the Paris agreement was a waste of money and resources?
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by rf15 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @06:05AM (#14643785)
> ~9% to ~13% from 2002 to 2013[1]

that's 4% in 11 years, basically flatlining compared to other countries.

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by dagw on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @09:20AM (#14645091)
that's 4% in 11 years

No, it's 45% growth in 11 years. It's 4 percentage points, but that is something different.

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by sigi45 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @03:27PM (#14648500)
yeah still a joke :)
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by rf15 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @02:40PM (#14648027)
point taken
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by pc86 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @09:20AM (#14645086)
The United States' energy use per capita[0] is the largest in the world. How does the total energy consumption of renewables v. non-renewables compare?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption#/medi...

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by mikeash on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:09AM (#14645499)
Nitpick: the US is #3, behind Iceland and Canada. Iceland is an incredible outlier, with a figure well over two times higher than Canada, I assume because aluminum production is such a huge part of the economy due to cheap geothermal and hydroelectric power.
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by avar on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:52AM (#14645903)
The US is actually #9 behind Iceland, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait, Brunei, Luxembourg, UAE and Canada[1]. Just sort that table by kgoe/a. You're right about why Iceland is so high, see [2].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_co...

2. https://askjaenergy.com/2014/11/17/iceland-is-the-world-larg...

Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by mikeash on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @03:13PM (#14648345)
That's where I looked too, but I sorted by the 2014 column which seems to be missing values for some of those countries. Confusing!
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by KekDemaga on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @09:03AM (#14644958)
I can presume that you personally only use renewables?
Re:A shift in China to less toxic coatings for containers in... by rf15 on Thursday June 29, 2017 @03:11AM (#14661377)
Fair criticism. On the other hand, if we're going down this road of argumentation: I am renewable.