China's 10% GDP isn't free. It is costing tens of millions of lives in the form of cancer from smog and other pollutants. Worse, the people in Japan have to suffer breathing someone else pollution:
Cuba is vastly poorer than China and maintains an approximate death rate to China while maintaining approximately equal birth rates and almost identical GDP per capita, with a vastly lower unemployment rate: http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=26 http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?t=0&v=25&r=xx&l=en http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?t=0&v=67&r=xx&l=en http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?t=0&v=74&r=xx&l=en However, as you can see, extreme poverty in African countries is devastating. Let's see what this website says in ten years time when all this polution has taken effect.
Just like the market, the environment will balance itself out. Those that kill nature, kill themselves. When enough people die that its noticeable to all, they'll change. Until then, they wont.
Sushi in China anyone? The US faced similar but back then there were less black and whites to view the deplorable factory conditions. From reading China has automatic imminent domain. Need your land for dam beat it before your drown.
This is why spending a single dime on reducing carbon footprint in America is a scam unless the "green" improvement financially pays for itself. China don't give a shit about no cap and trade. China's per capita GDP will surpass America's one day with the sorry state of our economy.
Unsure true or not. Probably some major cities in the world historically also had very similar environmentally unfriendly problems (perhaps not as bad) during their industrialisation development process.