Earth Equity News

The New Sputnik. By Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes, September 27, 2009. "Most people would assume that 20 years from now when historians look back at 2008-09, they will conclude that the most important thing to happen in this period was the Great Recession. I'd hold off on that. If we can continue stumbling out of this economic crisis, I believe future historians may well conclude that the most important thing to happen in the last 18 months was that Red China decided to become Green China. Yes, China's leaders have decided to go green -- out of necessity because too many of their people can't breathe, can't swim, can't fish, can't farm and can't drink thanks to pollution from its coal- and oil-based manufacturing growth engine. And, therefore, unless China powers its development with cleaner energy systems, and more knowledge-intensive businesses without smokestacks, China will die of its own development. What do we know about necessity? It is the mother of invention. And when China decides it has to go green out of necessity, watch out. You will not just be buying your toys from China. You will buy your next electric car, solar panels, batteries and energy-efficiency software from China... "I believe this Chinese decision to go green is the 21st-century equivalent of the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik -- the world's first Earth-orbiting satellite. That launch stunned us, convinced President Eisenhower that the U.S. was falling behind in missile technology and spurred America to make massive investments in science, education, infrastructure and networking -- one eventual byproduct of which was the Internet. Well, folks. Sputnik just went up again: China's going clean-tech. The view of China in the U.S. Congress -- that China is going to try to leapfrog us by out-polluting us -- is out of date. It's going to try to out-green us. Right now, China is focused on low-cost manufacturing of solar, wind and batteries and building the world's biggest market for these products. It still badly lags U.S. innovation. But research will follow the market. America's premier solar equipment maker, Applied Materials, is about to open the world's largest privately funded solar research facility -- in Xian, China... Unfortunately, we're still not racing... It is the Sputnik of our day. We ignore it at our peril."