China urged to shift urban growth to supercities

[freedomnorth]

Source: Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Shifting China's model of urbanization to favor huge supercities could boost per capita output, improve energy efficiency and help contain the loss of arable land, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) said on Monday.

Rapid urbanization has been a major driver of Chinese growth over the past two decades and will become more so over the next 20 years; cities will account for 95 percent of China's gross domestic product by 2025, up from 75 percent today, MGI said.

But the institute, the economics research arm of consultants McKinsey & Co, said in a report that China could reap even greater economic benefits by adopting a more concentrated pattern of urban growth.

(snip)

Urban China will need to find double the energy and water resources they now consume. Arable land could shrink 20 percent in the worst case, and pollution, no matter what, will be severe.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK34992820080324

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How can China possibly DOUBLE their energy and water? China is locked in its own endgame. And there is no way out.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Those poor people, living in boxes stacked on top of each other..

I just can't imagine living like that. I'd go crazy in the city, if I can't see growing, living, green things and have room to breathe. just not right. :(

[lapfog_1]

2. Many things thought of by SciFi writers are coming true.

[bananas]

3. They could double their energy with just wind

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4137

<snip>

Wind resources are abundant in China. An early assessment estimated the technical on-shore wind potential in China at 250 gigawatts (GW), while more recently the off-shore wind potential has been estimated at 750 GW, which would nearly double China’s total energy generation capacity.

<snip>

[NickB79]

4. Yet they added 100 GW of coal-fired power last year alone

2-3 coal-fired plants per WEEK.