FWIW: Tale Of Two Countries -- CO2 Emissions -- February 8, 2018

US (link here):

Germany:

Germany hypocrisy (link here):

Germany has an aggressive plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020. Last November, a leaked document from the country’s Environmental Ministry projected the country would miss the mark by 8 percent without additional action.

In other words, even with generous subsidies for renewable power, the Germans would have to implement some form of economy-restricting policy to curtail emissions. So much for the “go green and grow the economy” mantra.

The Environmental Ministry said the failure would be “a disaster for Germany’s international reputation as a climate leader.” One would think a stronger economy would be cause for celebration, not demonization.

Germany’s abandoned 2020 targets are the latest domino to fall in what is failed international climate policy. Many proponents of action argue that even though the Paris climate accord is nonbinding, with no repercussions when a country fails to comply with its nationally determined contributions, the agreement was an important first step.

Wind, solar taking over the world -- one percent every decade (link here), one roof at a time:

The above graphic fo 2040 assumes all countries "comply" with the Paris accords -- and already several have walked away or said they would miss their targets.

******************************

Notes to the Granddaughters

On my reading-to-do-today are too books:

• The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger, first c. 1945
• A New Literary History of Modern China, edited by David Der-Wei Wang, c. 2017

I've read the former perhaps three times, but every so often I feel the need to read it again, and every time I find something new. Today I'm reading it mostly to get a feel of how Salinger "put it together." If I recall correctly this is a book Salinger had conceived years earlier (before writing it) and "put it together" in his mind while serving in France during WWII. As I've noted before, it was the precursor to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I'll read a few pages today, mostly while waiting in the car when picking up the granddaughters from school later this afternoon. One could read the book in one sitting; it will take me a week or so.

The other book will last me a lifetime. It's not for the faint-hearted. But, wow, it's turning out to be a great book. The book is composed of 161 essays arranged chronologically to lay out the "genealogy" of modern Chinese literature. Absolutely fascinating. I've catalogued the 161 essays and now am reading them randomly, starting with those essays that might be most interesting for me. I am on my third or fourth essay. The essay I just completed has to do with the ritual of beheadings/decapitation in China and Japan. For those interested, the essay is "built around" the Musha Incident, and the Second Musha Incident.

Three modern authors are discussed: Wuhe, Lu Xun, and Shen Congwen. From the essay:
Wuhe ponders whether the Tayals (Taiwanese aborigines), the Japanese, and the Chinese are performing the roles of each other's predators and victims (with regard to "ritual beheadings"/massacres). Immediately, Tarantino's films came to mind -- especially the Kill Bill movies. I googled Tarantino beheadings Tayals and variations thereof but have not yet found what I'm hoping to find.

From wiki:

Han Chinese (also called Han) is an ethnic group from China. 92% of the Chinese population and more than 97% of the Taiwanese population are Han. Out of the entire human population in the world, 19% are Han Chinese. Han Chinese have the highest concentrations in the Eastern Provinces of China, particularly in the Hebei, Jiangsu, and Guangdong regions. The United States is home to the greatest number of overseas Han Chinese, exemplified in the group's prominence in New York City's Chinatown.

See map of China at this post.