Our starting point is that the battle against climate change can–and must–be won. The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act. If we fail to prevent climate change it will be because we were unable to foster the political will to cooperate. Such an outcome would represent not just a failure of political imagination and leadership, but a moral failure on a scale unparalleled in history. (Human Development Report 2007/2008)
I went back to mainland yesterday again, after a long absence. The dark pessimism about the mainland that I felt earlier has only become darker. Crossing from Hong Kong to only a few kilometers beyond the border, it would seem that the differences should not be that great. Surely there must have been differences between Hong Kong and its bordering neighbor, Shenzhen, far more visible 30 years ago as Hong Kong’s economy was soaring and mainland was still under a radical socialist regime. Today, the differences may be more subtle, but they seem just as shocking.
The polluted air that bothers Hong Kong so much is only worse in Shenzhen. What should have been a clear blue sky was actually a murky grey with orange hues were the sun should have been. While you can actually have space to stretch your arms and not hit someone in the face, you’re far more likely to be hit by a car. The roads are vast and wide yet still packed with cars.
Everything is a little more pale, as you find it’s all covered in a grimy mixture of soot and construction dust. Young spindly trees, which have been planted in large numbers lately for “greening”, are actually grey from the dust. Or often times, just simply dead.
The university campus we visited is a branch campus of China’s “MIT”: Tsinghua. It’s recently constructed (5-6 years), yet the buildings are full of flaws. The walls are cracking, and the materials are cheap. Strangely, there are few students. It feels more like a ghost university. There are rooms that still have the original seal –unbroken–across the door jam from the construction days.
I had made a comment earlier that day to some of mainland colleagues on what I perceived as wasteful living in the U.S.: oversized houses and rampant materialism. As we toured the large but empty campus, they chuckled and said I must feel the campus was a real waste!
I admit that I might be pessimistic to a degree that is not quite justified. The sadness that I feel in mainland is overwhelming. And yet, these are the days, where mainlanders feel more optimistic than ever before. Perhaps given the history they come from, it is indeed a better situation now. But as far as I see, mainland is living on borrowed time. We are all living on borrowed time right now.
Yet I really have to read that last sentence several times to remember what it means…“a moral failure on a scale unparalleled in history.”
Yes, indeed, what crime could be worse than destroying the world?
