China Is Leading the Race to Make Renewable Energy - NYTimes.com

TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

China Is Leading the Race to Make Renewable Energy - NYTimes.com

China’s 863 Program, a crash program for clean energy

n March 3, 1986, four of China’s top weapons scientists—each a veteran of the missile and space programs—sent a private letter to Deng Xiaoping, the leader of the country. Their letter was a warning: Decades of relentless focus on militarization had crippled the country’s civilian scientific establishment; China must join the world’s xin jishu geming, the “new technological revolution,” they said, or it would be left behind. They called for an élite project devoted to technology ranging from biotech to space research. Deng agreed, and scribbled on the letter, “Action must be taken on this now.” This was China’s “Sputnik moment,” and the project was code-named the 863 Program, for the year and month of its birth.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/21/091221fa_fact_osnos#ixzz0ZhLfHNeV

Tibet/ another view from China

Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong News and Business..

Another leap underway

In this article from Wired Magazine we hear about China's coming stage as innovator. I think it would be safe to say they see their predicament re: environmental degradation. They're on their way to doing something about it. This has got to be a good thing for us all.

Once the World's Great Factory, China Is the Next Great Innovator