Reduce greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide is considered the major gas that causes the greenhouse effect, or global warming. The combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) provides energy but emits exhaust containing nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). CO2 is generated in massive amounts, typically at 2-3 times the amount of coal burned. In terms of CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions, natural gas is the cleanest fuel, followed by oil and coal.
SO2 and NOx are acid rain precursors but their emissions are far less than CO2 emissions and can be reduced by more than 90 percent with currently applied exhaust cleanup technologies. For example, SO2 can be reacted with a lime solution to form gypsum as a byproduct; and NOx can be catalytically reduced with ammonia to form harmless nitrogen and water, with oxygen as a by-product.
In contrast, it is difficult, if not impossible, to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 90 percent unless the fossil fuel consumption can also be slashed by more than 90 percent through a combination of energy conservation, efficiency improvements and lifestyle changes. For example, energy savings can be achieved to a certain extent by preheating combustion air with flue gas waste heat, using oxygen (at an extra cost) or oxygen-enriched air instead of air for combustion, installing fuel cells for electricity generation, etc.
Alternatively, CO2 can be recovered from exhaust, compressed and injected underground or undersea. However, the environmental impacts of CO2 injection have to be assessed carefully since, in essence, CO2 is moved from air to land or water.
There has been an idea to dispose CO2 by catalytically reacting it with hydrogen to produce methane, which is the major component of natural gas. This idea sounds good but has a fallacy: the generation of hydrogen from fossil fuels also involves CO2 emissions. The so-called hydrogen economy has the same fallacy. Even if hydrogen is generated by the electrolysis of water, the generation of electricity from fossil fuels involves CO2 emissions as well. Incidentally, methane in air is another greenhouse gas more potent than CO2 per molecule.
Eventually, when fossil fuels are used up, people will have to use solar energy (including biomass and other regenerable energy) and nuclear energy. The CO2 emission problem might vanish. However, will a "global cooling" or other problems occur instead?
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Democratize China
One only has to look at the one party government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), including its legislative body, to see how absurd this "anti-secession" is ("Anti-secession bill makes no sense," Dec. 28, 2004, page 8).
Hong Kong's legislative body, however miserable it is, at least has 49 percent of its representatives directly elected by the population. While the "people's" Congress in Beijing, consists exclusively of communists, whose members number around 30 million. In other words, the 1.3 billion Chinese people have no representation -- only the obligation to pay taxes and to die in wars waged by the communists.
As an American, this "taxation without representation," looks to me like a good reason for revolution, be it against colonialists or anything else.
Communist China, from its "Constitution" on, has the same farcical authoritarian laws as previous imperial regimes. They do not recognize the concept of rule of law, or any legal standards outside of China, be it international law or UN declarations. The laws they do have are arbitrarily enforced by layers of bureaucracy, which, in practice, twists these laws to the breaking point.
The greatest thing Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) could do, would be to democratize China, return the power to the people and let the people make their own laws and decisions. China should also be governed by the consent of the people as in any other modern country. Hu's name would surely be remembered for centuries to come.
The PRC must first get to know the rules and principles of law before they enact this absurd "anti-secession" law.
Ming-Chung Chen
Chicago
Taiwan's Chinese is modern
Taiwan is indeed a better place than China to study Mandarin because it is safer and has a better educational infrastructure ("Taiwan ideal place to learn Chinese," Dec. 27, 2004, p.2).
But the most important reason is that Taiwan has preserved the essence of Chinese culture better than the communists in Beijing. Taiwan maintains the traditional (complex) system of writing characters, which is a vital link to centuries of Chinese texts and is aesthetically more beautiful than the simplified system, which the PRC promoted to indoctrinate the populace and to destroy traditional culture.
Taiwan, a society of immigrants standing at the crossroads of international commerce, has welcomed diasporas from all provinces of China and overseas (along with their cuisines and work ethics) and infused this eclectic Chinese culture with the best of the West, including democracy and capitalism. In contrast, China is ruled by a communist regime founded on Marxism and Leninism, ideas which have nothing to do with traditional Chinese culture.
Rather than discarding its roots (as some independence hardliners advocate), Taiwan should better market its comparative advantage as a Chinese yet modern nation. Foreigners studying in Taiwan can sometimes more clearly see the nation's future prospects.
Vincent Wei-cheng Wang
Richmond, Virginia
A gap appears to be emerging between Washington’s foreign policy elites and the broader American public on how the United States should respond to China’s rise. From my vantage working at a think tank in Washington, DC, and through regular travel around the United States, I increasingly experience two distinct discussions. This divergence — between America’s elite hawkishness and public caution — may become one of the least appreciated and most consequential external factors influencing Taiwan’s security environment in the years ahead. Within the American policy community, the dominant view of China has grown unmistakably tough. Many members of Congress, as
The Hong Kong government on Monday gazetted sweeping amendments to the implementation rules of Article 43 of its National Security Law. There was no legislative debate, no public consultation and no transition period. By the time the ink dried on the gazette, the new powers were already in force. This move effectively bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The rules were enacted by the Hong Kong chief executive, in conjunction with the Committee for Safeguarding National Security — a body shielded from judicial review and accountable only to Beijing. What is presented as “procedural refinement” is, in substance, a shift away from
The shifting geopolitical tectonic plates of this year have placed Beijing in a profound strategic dilemma. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) prepares for a high-stakes summit with US President Donald Trump, the traditional power dynamics of the China-Japan-US triangle have been destabilized by the diplomatic success of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Washington. For the Chinese leadership, the anxiety is two-fold: There is a visceral fear of being encircled by a hardened security alliance, and a secondary risk of being left in a vulnerable position by a transactional deal between Washington and Tokyo that might inadvertently empower Japan
After declaring Iran’s military “gone,” US President Donald Trump appealed to the UK, France, Japan and South Korea — as well as China, Iran’s strategic partner — to send minesweepers and naval forces to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When allies balked, the request turned into a warning: NATO would face “a very bad” future if it refused. The prevailing wisdom is that Trump faces a credibility problem: having spent years insulting allies, he finds they would not rally when he needs them. That is true, but superficial, as though a structural collapse could be caused by wounded feelings. Something
RSS