Climate Chat – Mrs Williamson
Earlier this year American Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and China Special Envoy for Climate Change, Xie Zhenhua, met in Shanghai. There they had a series of meetings to discuss how these two countries might reduce global emissions. A resolution was not reached!
Mrs Williamson (Head of Business and Economics) considers how their conversation might have gone.
Meeting 1
USA: So we’ve got to sort out the planet
China: Agreed
USA: So you need to stop producing loads of stuff and polluting the environment.
China: Riiiiiiight?
USA: And then the planet will be fine. Ok?
China: You do know that we export pretty much all of what we make to you guys? And a fair bit to Europe too.
USA: Yeah but you’re the ones doing the making so you’re the ones who’ve got to stop
China: Ok but you do know that Forever 21 and Walmart are basically full of stuff that’s ‘made in China’?
USA: Yeah but…
China: So if you guys stop buying new jeans every season and new paddling pools every summer and new plastic toys for your children and…
USA: But we can’t stop buying that stuff.
China: Why?
USA: Because what households buy makes up nearly 70% of our GDP every year. That means that if we persuade Americans to stop buying plastic stuff they don’t need from you guys, our economy will crash.
China: This sounds like a really big problem
USA: Yup
China: Shall we just get a Deliveroo instead?
USA: Yeah
*both reach for their smart phones*
Meeting 2
USA: Ok, so we’ve really got to sort this out. You guys produce 28% of the world’s CO2 emissions. That’s ridiculous!
China: And you produce 15%
USA: Ummmm hello? We produce a lower % so you’re the biggest problem.
China: No
USA: What do you mean no?
China: It’s not quite that simple. You see we have a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. You guys have a population of 328 million. Every single American emits 15 tonnes of CO2 each. Whereas every single Chinese person emits just 7 tonnes of CO2 per person. You are literally THE worst polluters in the world.
USA: Ok but we’ve got like a massive country. And everywhere is super far away from everywhere else, so we need big trucks.
China: You need big trucks?
USA: Yeah.
China: Riiiiight. Shall we just watch Breaking Bad instead?
USA: Yeah. This is, like, really hard to sort out.
*China sets up the IPad*
Meeting 3
USA: Ok, come on. We HAVE to decide on something today.
China: Sure
USA: Ok so what are you going to do?
China: How about we agree to become carbon neutral by 2060?
USA: Um, that’s ages away.
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