I just came across this startling statistic in Wired Magazine: By 2030 China could be producing as much carbon emissions as the entire world is creating today.

While that is a pretty scary prospect, it isn’t without a silver lining for us here in the US.

First, we need to address a theme of my work here on the Community Energy blog: the chicken or the egg question of carbon emissions. If you buy the product, who owns the carbon emissions? You, or the company that made the product. I’ll leave it up to you to decide for yourself.

Regardless of your answer, there is little doubt that there is a strong correlation between the amount of product purchased from any one manufacturer and the amount of product manufactured in its facilities. And of course, the amount of product manufactured is going to have a major impact on the emissions generated by that manufacturer. Therefore, the purchasers of the product, can impact the amount of emissions generated based on the amount of product they purchase.

So here’s the silver lining: We know that the US is a major consumer of products from China. So as individual consumers we have some say in the level of emissions generated there. We can make a difference.