Green Race - Joanna

The first words that come to my mind when reading this article are regulation and government intervention. American Society has taken pride in its “freedoms” to let the markets control themselves and to not have government telling them what to do. I feel like this green race would be doing just that. Making a country greener requires government to implement laws that do not allow companies to work the way they want and people to live the way they want. For example I do not think the one child rule that is in effect in China would work in the United States. If someone told people that they were only allowed to have 1 child people would riot. However in China people feel like it is their duty to uphold laws like that. It is simply a difference in opinions towards the government.

I definitely think it makes sense to consider there to be a race between China and the US because they race in everything. Ever since China’s economy has boomed I think the US have felt threatened and are constantly competing. I also agree that technology is a big part of the future of “green” living and this goes back into the point I made above about telling people what to do. I do not think that one-day everyone in the world or even US will wake up and think I am going to be as energy efficient as I possibly can from now on. I will recycle, use less water, use less energy and so on. Therefore yes I place most of my faith in technology because I think the only way US people will become green is if they can maintain their easy lifestyles as well, being green takes work and focus. It is also the manufacturing industry that creates a lot of the pollution so refocusing our energies on making their industries better for the environment is a very important factor in a green world.

However I think that we need to refocus everything. It is not just technology that will save us but the entire cycle, reducing, reusing and recycling. Just merely being conscious of your actions what they do and all together invested in keeping the world alive.