Reply #8: OK, so how about a pronoun change? As in, "WE all need to do it?"

[OKIsItJustMe]

Once the average American burns no more coal than the average Chinese, then we'll all decrease our coal use together.

It just seems incredibly arrogant for us to burn the amount of coal we do, in our dirty old plants and tell the Chinese, "You can't build new clean coal plants! Just think of what you're doing to the environment!"

I mean, I agree, it's scary, but the hypocrisy really bothers me. (Kinda like us wringing our hands over the environmental problems caused in China by us shipping them our "e-waste.")