Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the Limits to China's Economic Growth

Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the Limits to China's Economic Growth PDF

Author: Minqi Li

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-24

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1317820304

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This book studies the limits imposed by the depletion of fossil fuels and the requirements of climate stabilization on economic growth with a focus on China. The book intends to examine the potentials of various energy resources, including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, and other renewables, as well as energy efficiency. Unlike many other books on the subject, this book intends to argue that, despite the large potentials of renewable energies and energy efficiency, economic growth eventually will have to be brought to an end as China and the world undertake the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. China has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter. Their energy consumption is dominated by coal and China now accounts for one quarter of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, China is set to become the world’s largest oil importer in the next decade. This book will consider energy development in the broader context of economic and social changes, especially the historical dynamics of the capitalist world system. Historical lessons of capitalism and socialism will be discussed. The book will evaluate the implications of ecological limits to growth on the economic system and argue that the existing capitalist system is fundamentally incompatible with ecological sustainability.

China's Dilemma

China's Dilemma PDF

Author: Ligang Song

Publisher: ANU E Press

Published: 2008-07-01

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1921536039

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China's Dilemma - Economic Growth, the Environment and Climate Change examines the challenges China will have to confront in order to maintain rapid growth while coping with the global financial turbulence, some rising socially destabilising tensions such as income inequality, an over-exploited environment and the long-term pressures of global warming. China's Dilemma discusses key questions that will have an impact on China's growth path and offers some in-depth analyses as to how China could confront these challenges. The authors address the effect of the global credit crunch and financial shocks on China's economic growth; China's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and emissions reduction schemes; the environmental consequences of foreign direct investment in China; the relationship between air pollution and mortality; the effect of climate change on agricultural output; the coal industry's compliance with tougher regulations; and the constraints water shortages may impose on China's economy. It also emphasises the importance of managing the rising demand for energy to moderate oil price increases and placating domestic and international concerns about global warming. In the thirty years since China started on the path of reform, it has emerged as one of the largest and most dynamic economies in the world. This carries with it the responsibility to balance the requirements of key industries that are driving its development with the need to ensure that its growth is both equitable and sustainable. China's Dilemma highlights key lessons learned from the past thirty years of reform in order to pave the way for balanced and sustained growth in the future.

Peak Everything

Peak Everything PDF

Author: Richard Heinberg

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2010-07-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1550924699

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The 20th century saw unprecedented growth in population, energy consumption and food production. As the population shifted from rural to urban, human impacts on the environment increased dramatically. The 21st century ushered in an era of declines, including: Oil, natural gas and coal extraction Yearly grain harvests Climate stability Economic growth Fresh water Minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors and expectations. Now in paperback and featuring a foreword by James Howard Kunstler, Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological and practical changes we will have to make as nature dictates our new limits. This landmark work from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on vital aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time. A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book describes how to make the transition from The Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. Peak Everything is a must-read for individuals, business leaders and policy makers serious about effecting real change.

China's Limits to Growth

China's Limits to Growth PDF

Author: Peter Ho

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 2006-10-23

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781405153904

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In this book a multi-disciplinary team of experts from around the world studies the environmental challenge posed by China’s phenomenal economic growth. An exploration of the environmental challenge posed by China’s phenomenal economic growth. Written by a multi-disciplinary team of experts from around the world. Argues that China’s development poses the greatest ever challenge for the modern world in terms of speed, size and resource scarcity. Discusses issues such as cleaner production, green car technology, resettlement resulting from dam building, and biotechnology. Moves beyond the dichotomy between alarmist, radical views and moderate notions of incremental change.

The Great Disruption

The Great Disruption PDF

Author: Paul Gilding

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-04-04

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1408817519

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A major new analysis and action plan to deal with two linked challenges to human ingenuity and human survival - the crisis of climate change and the world economic crash. 'Gilding says that our current economic model is driving the system over a cliff. We are already living beyond the planet's capacity to support us and a crisis is no longer avoidable' The Times 'If you're planning to stick around for the 21st century, this might be a useful book to consult' Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth and The End of Nature It's time to stop just worrying about climate change, says Paul Gilding. Instead we need to brace for impact, because global crisis is no longer avoidable. The 'Great Disruption' started in 2008, with spiking food and oil prices and dramatic ecological change like the melting polar icecap. It is not simply about fossil fuels and carbon footprints. We have come to the end of Economic Growth, Version 1.0, a world economy based on consumption and waste, where we lived beyond the means of our planet's ecosystems and resources. The Great Disruption offers a stark and unflinching look at the challenge humanity faces - yet also a deeply optimistic message. The coming decades will see loss, suffering and conflict as our planetary overdraft is paid. However, they will also bring out the best humanity can offer: compassion, innovation, resilience and adaptability. Gilding tells us how to fight, and win, what he calls 'the One Degree War' to prevent catastrophic warming of the earth, and how to start today. The crisis we are in represents a rare chance to replace our addiction to growth with an ethic of sustainability, and it's already happening. It's also an unmatched business opportunity: old industries will collapse while new companies literally reshape our economy. In the aftermath of the Great Disruption, we will measure 'growth' in a new way. It will mean not quantity of stuff, but quality, and happiness, of life. And, yes, there is life after shopping. The Great Disruption is an invigorating and well-informed polemic by an advocate for sustainability and climate change who has dedicated his life to campaigning for a balanced use of Earth's limited resources. It is essential reading.

The End of Growth

The End of Growth PDF

Author: Richard Heinberg

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1550924834

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Economics has failed us ... but there is life after growth! Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. Richard Heinberg’s latest landmark work goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors: Resource depletion Environmental impacts Crushing levels of debt These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and to reinvent money and commerce. The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth’s budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP. Richard Heinberg is the author of nine previous books, including The Party's Over , Peak Everything , and Blackout . A senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, Heinberg is one of the world's foremost peak oil educators and an effective communicator of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.

The World After Cheap Oil

The World After Cheap Oil PDF

Author: Rauli Partanen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-24

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1317615980

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Substantial evidence suggests that we are currently living at the peak of oil production with few prospects for cheap oil ever returning. Yet the media, politicians and regular people have hardly started to talk about what this means. Oil literally runs our societies from transportation to food production to economic activity. Without oil, everything stops. There are powerful arguments that if we fail to increase oil production, we will also fail to grow our economy as a whole. For oil importing western nations the news is bleak; higher oil prices seem to put a glass ceiling on their economic growth, making current debt problems worse no matter what monetary and economic policies we might choose. The World After Cheap Oil offers a thorough package of information about oil; its uses and its role in our society’s important sectors. It presents the most prominent substitutes and alternatives, and their limits and promises. It also delves deep into the many risks, problems and mechanisms that can make the world after cheap oil a much more unstable place for nations and humanity as a whole. The book also explains why there has been so little public debate on the subject, and what the future might look like after oil production starts its final, terminal decline.

The Economics of Energy Policy in China

The Economics of Energy Policy in China PDF

Author: ZhongXiang Zhang

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Various economic models are used in analyzing cost estimates for limiting carbon dioxide emissions, including an input-output approach, dynamic optimization and a computable general equilibrium approach. Topics include strategies for responding to climate change, policy instruments to control carbon dioxide emissions, the Chinese energy system, possible sectoral and macroeconomic effects of limiting carbon dioxide emissions, and the effects of recycling carbon tax revenues and compliance with carbon dioxide limits in China's power industry. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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