Comment Re:no supercomputer needed (Score 1) 63
yes but if we spend the next 5-20 years modeling we don't actually have to do anything real about it.
China isn't like the USA.
They tend to move purposefully and quickly when goals are set.
In the run up to the Olympics, China unilaterally closed coal power plants, various heavy industries, and took cars off the road, all in a bid to reduce pollution in Beijing.
It took the USA 40 years to tell grandfathered coal plants to either shape up or shut down.
Compare to China:
Beijing plans to limit the total number of cars on the road to 5.6 million this year, with the number allowed to rise to 6 million by 2017, the local government has said.
It will also aim to meet its 2011-2015 targets to cut outdated capacity in sectors like steel, glassmaking and cement by the end of this year, one year ahead of schedule. On top of the original targets, it will also close an additional 15 million tonnes of steel smelting capacity and 100 million tonnes of cement making capacity next year.
The key idea here is that all this is happening unilaterally.
Their actions probably wouldn't even be constitutional in the USA.