I’m Asian. Don’t take my just-rising living standards away from me.
Nothing is being taken away. You and your countries have the biggest chance at actually making things better! Rising living standards doesn’t mean “copy the West and all its mistakes”. Don’t look at the West as if they have it all figured out.
You could have walkable, green cities and towns, with amazing public transport! It costs less than forcing everybody to have a car, keeps more people healthy as there will be less pollution of all kinds (noise, particles, chemical, industrial, …), and makes for much happier citizens.
You could invest in green technologies like solar, wind, hydrogen, heat exchangers, etc. It will mean cheaper bills for everything (transport, heating, cooling, appliances, …) and much less dependence on foreign companies (once things are set up). No more oil and gas imports would be amazing for your country’s autonomy.
Going green doesn’t mean worse living standards, it means exactly the opposite. You could leapfrog the West and raise the living standards for millions of your countrymen and countrywomen.
Yeah, that’s definitely a big problem in the west too. It just seemed like you were connecting high living standards to a polluting lifestyle. I hope Asia, Africa, and South America can just skip all the polluting bullshit and go straight to green. Good luck! I saw Thailand wants to have a high speed rail from its capital to the most northern city, which is great! At least that’s happening.
Nothing is being taken away. You and your countries have the biggest chance at actually making things better! Rising living standards doesn’t mean “copy the West and all its mistakes”. Don’t look at the West as if they have it all figured out.
You could have walkable, green cities and towns, with amazing public transport! It costs less than forcing everybody to have a car, keeps more people healthy as there will be less pollution of all kinds (noise, particles, chemical, industrial, …), and makes for much happier citizens.
You could invest in green technologies like solar, wind, hydrogen, heat exchangers, etc. It will mean cheaper bills for everything (transport, heating, cooling, appliances, …) and much less dependence on foreign companies (once things are set up). No more oil and gas imports would be amazing for your country’s autonomy.
Going green doesn’t mean worse living standards, it means exactly the opposite. You could leapfrog the West and raise the living standards for millions of your countrymen and countrywomen.
Kenya is an excellent example of this. 90% of its electricity is from renewable sources and its aiming for 100% by 2030.
Awesome! That sounds amazing. Does that mean less diesel and gasoline cars (or less cars in general)?
I’m not against any of that. But all that requires buy in and commitment from govt, and we’re no less corrupt than anybody else.
Yeah, that’s definitely a big problem in the west too. It just seemed like you were connecting high living standards to a polluting lifestyle. I hope Asia, Africa, and South America can just skip all the polluting bullshit and go straight to green. Good luck! I saw Thailand wants to have a high speed rail from its capital to the most northern city, which is great! At least that’s happening.