Green China

I found this article interesting:

Increasingly aware of the deteriorating state of China's environment, the Chinese leadership has decided that it wants the national economy to not only grow fast, but grow green. They have asked state planners to develop a new indicator to measure the country's growth, a "green GDP", which would account for the costs of environmental impact and resource consumption.

The emphasis on "green GDP" reflects China's slowly shifting priorities from sustaining growth at all costs to realizing more sustainable growth.

Tom Friedman wrote a recent op/ed on this issue wherein he predicted that China would soon become the world's leader in environmental-related technology (Friedman's piece is not yet available on-line).

So what is the United States doing on this front? Well, I know what my home state of Oregon is trying to do, and who is opposing Oregon on its efforts. If you guessed that Republicans are opposing these efforts, you'd be right:

An attorney representing the car industry and GOP lawmakers urged a judge Monday to block a move by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Oregon environmental officials to adopt California's tough new vehicle emission standards to reduce greenhouse gases.

In arguments in Marion County Circuit Court, attorney Carl Neil said Kulongoski is ignoring the wishes of the Legislature by having the state Department of Environmental Quality continue to work on adopting the California standards by the end of the year.

I hope the recent political victories by the Democrats are indications that the GOP is on its way out as the dominant party, because this country really can't afford any more Republican leadership.