Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Urbanization lowers birthrate, a terrifying prospect for captitalism

China Hits Key Demographic Ceiling As Working-Age Population Now Declining | Zero Hedge: "The impact will be more pronounced between 2015 and 2020, as the labor force is expected to see outright contraction. This wrenching demographic trend will also have a particularly negative implication for China’s capital stock growth, which accounted for 40-50% of the double-digit growth in the 1990s and 2000s"

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Oil demand in 2012 expected up 1% mainly due to China - IEA. Let's not.

International Energy Agency - Oil Market Report: "The world is forecast to consume 90.8 mb/d of oil in 2013, 240 kb/d more than in last month’s report and 930 kb/d (1.0%) up on 2012. A raised 4Q12 demand estimate and heightened expectations for China are the main contributors to the hike."

'via Blog this'

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

China pollution anger spills into state media (Update)

China pollution anger spills into state media (Update): "The choice between development and environmental protection should be made by genuinely democratic methods," the Global Times said. "Environmental problems shouldn't be mixed together with political problems."
Ironically, the smog from coal-burning actually mitigates global warming, at the same time climate disruption aggravates the coal smog. Either way, degrowth is the answer.