It's a measure of energy efficiency, so I think it's a fair measure. Note that China has a much higher emission rate than India, a nation at a similar place in their development. I bring up CO2 emissions simply to point out that the plastic problem isn't an isolated thing. China has major systemic environmental issues.
I agree that China is showing some signs of moving in a better direction environmentally, though they are still building coal plants. That's not my point. My point is that people seem to want to let them off the hook for where they are contributing to major global pollution problems and where they could (easily in this case!) do something about it. How hard would it be to clean up the Yangtze River for the world's second largest economy? It would be much easier than reducing CO2 emissions.
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GDP per emission is really a bad measure. It implies that the Earth's atmosphere is owned by the producers of goods.
Emission per capita is much more fair.
China has come a long long way. Fertility is much lower. They are investing heavily in renewables.
And they rarely travel by car or airplane.
It's a measure of energy efficiency, so I think it's a fair measure. Note that China has a much higher emission rate than India, a nation at a similar place in their development. I bring up CO2 emissions simply to point out that the plastic problem isn't an isolated thing. China has major systemic environmental issues.
I agree that China is showing some signs of moving in a better direction environmentally, though they are still building coal plants. That's not my point. My point is that people seem to want to let them off the hook for where they are contributing to major global pollution problems and where they could (easily in this case!) do something about it. How hard would it be to clean up the Yangtze River for the world's second largest economy? It would be much easier than reducing CO2 emissions.