The US and China must unite to fight climate change, not each other | Bernie Sanders

Okay after skimming through looks not so good even if the overall message is better than most politicians

In recent years, the rapidly growing Chinese economy has eclipsed the US as the world’s major carbon emitter. Right now, China is building six times as many coal-fired power plants as the rest of the world combined – the equivalent of two new coal plants every week. Last year, they quadrupled the number of new coal plants approved compared with 2021. Current plans will see China add as much new coal to its grid as used in all of India, the second largest coal user, and five times more coal capacity as the US.

It is no great secret the Chinese government is undertaking many policies that we and the international community should oppose. They are cruelly repressing and interning the Uyghurs, threatening Taiwan and stifling freedom of expression in Tibet and Hong Kong. China has bullied its neighbors, abused the global trading system, stolen technology and is building out a dystopian surveillance state.

Just awful

Yes, it is true - if you look at the numbers as a whole, China does emit more carbon than America. But what constantly goes artfully elided in these statements is that their carbon emissions PER CAPITA is WAY lower than America’s. Of course they emit more carbon, like four times as many people live there. But what China doesn’t have are single individuals driving military grade gas guzzling SUVs two blocks to buy groceries twice a week. Also, most of their emissions come from industrial plants that produce all of the goods whose production WE OUTSOURCE TO THEM. The only reason their carbon emissions are so high is because western capitalists realized it’d be cheaper to move production there than keep them in the first world. Also, Bernie, who is making a massive investment in green energy? I’ll give you a hint, it’s only one of these countries. So it should be less about “America and China need to put aside their differences and work together”, a statement that tacitly implies that there’s something China isn’t doing that they need to start, and more about “America needs to catch the fuck up to China’s massive pivot toward green energy”.