Due diligence
This is very interesting (thanks to Simon Elegant) from a report on cleaning up China’s air:
One of the most surprising findings was that “the kinds of technologyI’m not sure where it was, but I read that the medical changes that actually increase longevity have been due less to breakthrough treatments than to the calibration of doses and regimens, etc. I suspect that there’s a more general moral here that applies to education as well.
currently being adopted in China are not cheap. They’re not buying
junk, and in some cases the plants are employing state-of-the-art
technology.”
The findings suggest that emissions levels from Chinese
powerplants, he said, “depend almost entirely on the quality of the
coal they use. When they’re hit by price spikes, they buy low-grade
coal.” Lower-grade coal, which produces high levels of sulfur
emissions, can be obtained locally, whereas the highest-grade
anthracite comes mostly from China’s northwest and must travel long
distances to the plants, adding greatly to its cost. Contrary to what
many outsiders believe, the Chinese state has substantially improved
its ability to implement and enforce rules on technology standards. It
has been slower, however, to develop such abilities for monitoring the
day-to-day operations of energy producers.