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Was it wrong for the car companies to help China expand its auto industry?

Was it wrong for the car companies to help China expand its auto industry?

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Jing China says that by 2020 it will triple the number of o nghai. Forrito roads States, and the rest of the industrialized world, and promising future economic disruptions and political or military conflicts. If China were to substitute elec- tric vehicles for gas-fueled cars, as it plans to, it will have to expand its coal powered electric plants which in turn will increase its carbon dioxide emissions. 1. Was it wrong for the car companies to help China expand its auto industry? 283
Transcribed Image Text:Jing China says that by 2020 it will triple the number of o nghai. Forrito roads States, and the rest of the industrialized world, and promising future economic disruptions and political or military conflicts. If China were to substitute elec- tric vehicles for gas-fueled cars, as it plans to, it will have to expand its coal powered electric plants which in turn will increase its carbon dioxide emissions. 1. Was it wrong for the car companies to help China expand its auto industry? 283
The Auto Companies in China n 2000, China's car market began to expand dra- matically due to the increasing wealth of the coun try, the encouragement of the government, and a growing middle class that wanted the comfort, con- venience, and pride of car ownership. By 2010 China had become the largest car market in the world with over 18 million cars sold that year. With a population of 1.2 billion people and double-digit growth rates, China estimated that by 2035 as many as 300 million cars would be traveling on its highways. Foreign car companies eagerly flocked to help China expand its car industry, including Volkswagen, General Motors (GM), Honda, Toyota, Ford, Citroen, and BMW, who together invested more than $20 billion to kick-start China's auto industry in 2000. In 2011, Volkswagen announced it had sold 2 million cars in China the pre- vious year and GM announced it had sold 2.3 million and would be selling 5 million a year by 2015. Crit- ics suggested, however, that the overzealous auto companies unwittingly might be inflicting serious harms on the global environment. To begin with, the orker on an assembly line building the GM evrolet Sail in Shandong province, China. pollution from so many new cars promised to have severe environmental impacts. Even "clean" cars will generate carbon dioxide as they burn fuel, thus wors- ening the greenhouse effect. Cars also produce smog and other health hazards (tuberculosis cases will double; emphysema and lung cancers will rise), and China's form of gasoline contains lead, a toxic metal. Expanding China's car production will increase oil consumption, placing heavy pressures on the world's dwindling oil resources. China's rising oil consump- tion was partly responsible for continuing oil prices of over $100 a barrel in 2011 (the high price was also due to civil unrest in the Middle East) that drove the price of gas in the U.S. to over $4 a gallon. If car own- ership in China continues to rise, by 2020 China's oil consumption could be two thirds of the United States' (the U.S. consumes one-fourth of the world's oil), a level the world's oil supplies probably cannot support. Some experts claim world oil production peaked in 2010, leaving declining and more expensive oil sup- plies to meet the rising demands of China, the United
Transcribed Image Text:The Auto Companies in China n 2000, China's car market began to expand dra- matically due to the increasing wealth of the coun try, the encouragement of the government, and a growing middle class that wanted the comfort, con- venience, and pride of car ownership. By 2010 China had become the largest car market in the world with over 18 million cars sold that year. With a population of 1.2 billion people and double-digit growth rates, China estimated that by 2035 as many as 300 million cars would be traveling on its highways. Foreign car companies eagerly flocked to help China expand its car industry, including Volkswagen, General Motors (GM), Honda, Toyota, Ford, Citroen, and BMW, who together invested more than $20 billion to kick-start China's auto industry in 2000. In 2011, Volkswagen announced it had sold 2 million cars in China the pre- vious year and GM announced it had sold 2.3 million and would be selling 5 million a year by 2015. Crit- ics suggested, however, that the overzealous auto companies unwittingly might be inflicting serious harms on the global environment. To begin with, the orker on an assembly line building the GM evrolet Sail in Shandong province, China. pollution from so many new cars promised to have severe environmental impacts. Even "clean" cars will generate carbon dioxide as they burn fuel, thus wors- ening the greenhouse effect. Cars also produce smog and other health hazards (tuberculosis cases will double; emphysema and lung cancers will rise), and China's form of gasoline contains lead, a toxic metal. Expanding China's car production will increase oil consumption, placing heavy pressures on the world's dwindling oil resources. China's rising oil consump- tion was partly responsible for continuing oil prices of over $100 a barrel in 2011 (the high price was also due to civil unrest in the Middle East) that drove the price of gas in the U.S. to over $4 a gallon. If car own- ership in China continues to rise, by 2020 China's oil consumption could be two thirds of the United States' (the U.S. consumes one-fourth of the world's oil), a level the world's oil supplies probably cannot support. Some experts claim world oil production peaked in 2010, leaving declining and more expensive oil sup- plies to meet the rising demands of China, the United
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