Solar programs tend to be efficient in countries like mine.
Too bad that we're still quite dependent on fossil fuels due to corporate lobbying.
Speaking of lobbying, is such a thing influencing the sabre-rattling between China and Japan?
edited 28th Apr '14 7:05:39 PM by Quag15
Show an affirming flame
From the energy industries? I'd seriously doubt it. The corrupt megacorp playing countries against each other is a beloved cliche, but it's not the case here, since better relations between countries means easier business opportunities. As it is, there's a lot of uncertainty, which is bad for business.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
rollin' on dubs
And China is the 800 pound gorilla: too rich to be bought off and too strong to muscle.
Too much is up in the air. The US really doesn't have a dog in the fight in Asia, aside from keeping the PLA from going on tour.
And funny someone should mention lobbying. In the Leonard Nimoy narrated series "Sea Power" back in The '90s, there was an attempt at a conference to mediate the dispute over the Spratleys.
And talk was all that came out. Latter America got focused on Iraq and Iran, 9/11 and China got better tech.
Sigh, What Could Have Been....
edited 28th Apr '14 7:30:01 PM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Never Trust
AFAIK caltrates are unstable and no one has come up with a way to stabilize them up here on the surface long enough to be useful.
edited 28th Apr '14 8:46:32 PM by tricksterson
Trump delenda est
China have a lot of unemployed renewable energy major graduates. Methink they could get some meals.
わからない
Tensions surge in S.China Sea as China locks horns with Philippines, Vietnam
Tensions are also brewing in another part of the sea, where China has warned Vietnam not to disturb activities of Chinese companies operating near disputed islands. Earlier, Hanoi condemned the movement of a giant Chinese oil rig into what it said was its territorial waters.
Dozens of patrol boats and other navy and coastguard vessels from both countries are in the area, Vietnamese officials say. Some collisions have taken place, said a navy official, but he did not give details and they appeared to be minor.
"No shots have been fired yet," said the official, who could not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to media. "Vietnam won't fire unless China fires first."
Chief Superintendent Noel Vargas of the Philippine National Police Maritime Group said a maritime police patrol apprehended a Chinese fishing boat around 7 a.m. on Tuesday off Half Moon Shoal in the Spratly Islands on the South China Sea.
The boat has 11 crew and police found about 350 turtles in the vessel, some of which were already dead, a police report said, adding that a Philippine boat with crew was also seized, and found to have 70 turtles on board. Several species of sea turtles are protected under Philippine law.
Maritime police are now towing the boats to Puerto Princesa town on the island of Palawan where appropriate charges will be filed against them, Vargas said.
China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, said the Philippines had to release the boat and the fishermen.
"China's Foreign Ministry and China's ambassador to the Philippines have made representations to the Philippines side, demanding that it provide a rational explanation and immediately release the people and the vessel", ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.
"We once again warn the Philippines not to take any provocative actions," she said, adding that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands.
There are frequent tensions in the South China Sea between China and the other claimant nations, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines, both of which say Beijing has harassed their ships in the waters there.
While there are frequent stand-offs between fishermen and the various claimant states in the South China Sea, the actual detention of Chinese fishermen or the seizure of a boat is rare.
Full article here
.
"We once again warn the Philippines not to take any provocative actions, " she said, adding that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands.
The use of such strong language by a person from the Chinese government means that they've finally revealed their intentions in a clear way.
I don't culminate!
No, not a superpower. A large nation.
Meanwhile, Vietnam and Philipines are acting like (in terms of naval / foreign policies) victims with the throat capacity of USA.
Same as usual.... Wing it.
HGW XX/7
What has China's size got to do with anything? China's claims are based on the nine-dash line which, as has been explained before, is junk.
Schild und Schwert der Partei
I don't culminate!
Admittedly, the line was drawn too close to other people's footsteps to begin with, but it's nothing other than predictable for China to hold that line.
Same as usual.... Wing it.
HGW XX/7
Sure, but that doesn't give their claim any weight, either historical, legal, or moral.
Schild und Schwert der Partei
I don't culminate!
Problem is, China has its own people to answer to. Our thoughts can just sink in the metaphorical river compared to their need for resources. I think I need more time to see how this unfolds. Vietnam has a history of being an antagonist in diplomatical talks with China, as with Phillipines, so I can chalk it up as China's way of projecting its control over resources.
Same as usual.... Wing it.
Never Trust
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
And if they have the guns to back it up does any of that matter? No.
V
China and Vietnam even fought a War soon after The Vietnam War...
HGW XX/7
Perhaps not, but seizing their claims by force is bad PR, especially if they refuse to work through any of the international structures for doing so. Might not be worth the expenditure in blood either; especially with the United States supplying or supporting their rivals.
If China needs resources, it should buy them or invest in alternatives. China is big into renewables at the moment, for good reason. The drive into the SCS has as much to do with nationalism as it does with economics.
edited 10th May '14 6:11:17 AM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der Partei
I don't culminate!
I remember that one. But I don't think it plays into this dispute in particular, because in this world, there are no permanent friends and lifelong enemies.
edited 10th May '14 6:10:41 AM by Culminus
Same as usual.... Wing it.
rollin' on dubs
The spanner in the works is the Chinese economy and it's hunger for resources. All that "theoretical" oil, methane and other stuff under the sea.
If this was just a border dispute, it'd be easy to mediate. When money is involved things get messy.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
わからない
"Acting like" typically denotes that they're not like it to begin with. For example, "acting like nothing happened" when something DID happen.
So essentially, what you're saying is that Vietnam and the Philippines are not victims...?
In the short-term, yes, sort of a spanner. But in the long-term? Not really. Considering the rate of population aging is actually the same, if not more, than those that some developed European countries have experienced (yet in terms of GDP per capita, China haven't reached the levels those European countries have reached), they have shot themselves on their own foot almost a half-century ago.
edited 10th May '14 8:08:13 AM by entropy13
I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.
rollin' on dubs
That's what is really scary. Argentina fought over an island with rocks and frozen penguins because the Junta was on shakey ground.
There is much more at stake here and the last thing we need is the Powers That Be think that shooting is the only answer.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Fortunately, Obama appears to have arrived at the same conclusion...
It comes down to energy efficiency, unfortunately. Green energy has a lot going for it, but efficiency in terms of power delivered per...well, anything, be it cost or space, is fairly low, and that's not counting the occasional imbroglio like Germany's solar program (which had to deal with the slight problem of the infamously cloudy European weather). Modern nuclear plants—properly regulated and constructed—lead in terms of efficiency and in pollution emitted, but after Fukushima that's politically dangerous.
So, fossil fuels it is. And should the extraction process for methane hydrates pan out, well, it's cleaner than coal.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.