Listened to a very interesting program about a US (I believe) company contracted by the Shanghai Dvp Corp to design a sustainable city. From the ground up including farming & jobs, transportation & buildings. Totally fascinating discussion.
http://audio.wbez.org/wv/2007/01/wv_20070117.m3u
Unfortunately it’s audio only, so I didn’t quite get the name of the company that Gary Lawrence works for. The way he pronounced it sounded like Arbay or something close.
Ice & snow? No problem, painting is low tech.
Replies
http://www.arup.com/eastasia/project.cfm?pageid=7047
How do you know about stuff like this? Your breadth never ceases to amaze........********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
I just google the stuff! The most marvelous thing about this site is that it sends one off in so many different directions; i just follow my nose. The posts about China's shooting down a satellite? That was in a link in the Elevate the War Discussion a couple months ago, written by a Filipino military officer. Seemed far-fetched at the time, yet...there ya go!Breaktime plus Google is rather a large intellectual playpen, don't you think? I have this sense of urgency, like i should enjoy it hard before the beancounters eff it up completely.
I watched an interesting show on PBS the other night about China--called "Inside China" or something like that. Talked about how they are "allowing" the Gobi Desert to take over hundreds (thousands?) of square miles of northern China (because they've cut the forests and overgrazed the grasslands, while at the same time are pouring lots of money and effort into diverting water to make a garden out of 100 square miles of desert elsewhere. Have a grand plan to divert 2/3 of the water from several rivers in the south to Beijing to refill the reservoir that supplies that city. That requires flooding the Three Rivers Gorge and displacing 300,000 people. Those people, mostly subsistence farmers, are being moved into luxurious apartment complexes in a newly built city. Once they get there though, there are no jobs and nothing for them to do.
In the meantime, the rivers that will be diverted are so polluted that one in a hundred people has cancer. Diverting 2/3 of their water will make those rivers even more polluted. They are doing nothing (or precious little) to curb pollution, because unrestrained growth (8% growth) is good for their economy. Burning high sulfur coal is cheap and industry thrives, but they figure the loss to the country from pollution is 15%, so they have a net of a 7% loss. Anyway, I was truly impressed with how smart people (smart, not wise) do things. My brother keeps pointing out how irrational my beliefs in God are and how mankind has all the answers--well, if this is the kind of answers mankind is coming up with, I'll take my irrational beliefs. I hope there is a God, because mankind ain't cuttin' it. (China, BTW, is one of a few paradises on earth (along with Cuba and North Korea) according to my favorite left-wing pundit, Noam Chomsky.)
After seeing this I felt like by the time China conquers the rest of the world ('course, they'll have a tough time fighting North Korea and Iran over the spoils of war) their own country and people will be so screwed up they won't be able to govern the rest of the world. Maybe they figure if they ruin their own country, they'll just go retire to Florida and Arizona.
Sorry for the diversion from the topic. Back to your regular programming.
To follow on your comments about China's energy needs, i've been following the rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organizaton (SCO) that started just a few years ago as a loose organization dedicated to lessening tensions on the Russian-Chinese border. These two old sparring partners successfully settled that tiff and moved on to joint military exercises, as well, with plans to do more. Russia is losing population, while China has all that manpower. China needs energy and Russia's selling. I agree that the economic turnaround for both is being done at the expense of health and the environment (and law), but it's not at all unlike the US before Earth Day occurred to anyone. Los angeles certainly wouldn't exist if the Owens River had its natural way. I wonder if the efforts such as plantlust was referencing aren't China's acknowledgement that pollution can't continue unabated. As to China skirmishing with Iran...Iran is on course to being accepted into the SCO. They are presently hovering in 'observer' status, a position denied to the US when the US applied for same, btw. The SCO is proceeding very diliberately, not rushing to build a coalition, but nevertheless garnering a huge amount of the planet's resources in their group. (It would seem the clerics are as threatened by Islamist militants as we are. <G>) I haven't a clue how NK will figure in...maybe when Kim's out of the picture?Russia is losing population, while China has all that manpower. China needs energy and Russia's selling. I agree that the economic turnaround for both is being done at the expense of health and the environment, but it's not at all unlike the US before Earth Day. I wonder if the efforts such as plantlust was referencing aren't their acknowledgement that pollution can't continue unabated. Perhaps Russian oil will be replacing coal?Last i read up on the Three Rivers Gorge (a couple years ago) is that siltation is going to be a huge issue, making it obsolete way before they planned. India is doing a lot of these 'dam' projects as well in an effort to be energy efficient and self-sufficient. Unfortunately, there's a lot of WB money greasing palms in many of these schemes.Like your brother, i believe man has all he answers he could ever need without asking God, but i think we fail in asking the right questions.
For 25 years I have been wondering why we could not offer criminals and welfare recipients a second chance at life by training them and interning them in a project to build a brand new city. Sure, when I was 15 no one took me seriously, but then again maybe I was ahead of my time. :)
They do that in Mexico all the time--the criminals build the interior of a walled city and run it--it's called a prison. (The country outside the prisons is basically run by criminals who haven't been caught yet--same as in the US.) If you want more than your two meals a day of some chicken feet, you buy food from other prisoners. If you don't have money they accept other things in trade.
Yeah, but then you have criminals building their own escape routes. :)
There's also a multi-story tower going up in Guangzhou (designed by American firm SOM) that's designed to harvest wind power, as well as incorporate other green technologies (fuel cells, etc.). When completed the claims are it will generate more power than it will use.
the irony is that a Chinese tobacco company will be the main tenant
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2227
Wow, that is gorgeous! What an idea....to make the building direct the wind instead of merely confronting it.