You got to do it, so why can’t we?

Question: Is development incompatible with environmentalism?

Melissa Chiu: I mean China _____ leadership in China has to also recognize the importance of the environment in its policies. And you know, I often hear advocates of Chinese . . . the Chinese government say, when they talk about the environment, they use the analogy that, you know, first world nations have developed and ruined their environment. And it’s almost like a room of smokers where China comes in and they all say, “You can’t smoke,” meaning . . . the analogy being that, of course, all of the first world nations have already developed and they don’t . . . they want to somehow hinder China from smoking, if you push the analogy further in terms of . . . in terms of actually developing. And I think that that’s . . . And some in the Chinese government may recognize this already; but I think that this will be really something that will affect the future of not just China, of course because of its size, but also the world.

Recorded on: 7/11/07