China has 12 days worth of coal left, its most vital energy source

they should turn their nukes into energy...

Can we assume that in light of them having only 12 days worth of coal left, that they will import coal from other countries in exchange for electronic goods?

they should turn their coal into diamonds.

I think this is just an exmaple of the ramifications that can come about when relying to heavily on an energy resource that isn't renewable. Maybe the rest of the world can take this as a warning and come up with a global power source that is environmentally safe and renewable.

China is the biggest emitter of carbon emissions. Hopeful when their coal does run out it'll serve a wake-up call to the Chinese government to begin moving toward self sufficiency.

maybe they can burn all of those left over plastic bags from earth day....

Hopefully we can make back some over our absurdly huge debt with china by selling some coal. The American government is broke but the corporations that run it aren't. This is definately gonna help the dollar and therefore americans.

CalPerr, we are already currently destroying our Appalachian Mountain ranges at an unprecedented rate. The last thing we need to do is start shipping out coal to other nations. China's problem lies in the huge surge in energy demand. But it is already the largest producer of CO2 on the planet and that comes from it's reliance on coal. China needs to focus on alternative energy structures as well as energy reduction (As do we in the West). for more info on Mountain Top Removal (coal mining) check out www.ilovemountains.org

This will, of course, affect oil prices as well. looking forward to the 4$ mark in Summer.

china needs efficiency real bad!

The global ramifications are huge if China suddenly grinds to a halt. This will be very interesting to observe.

I read that article, huntre - shame on the EU! One excerpt however made me wonder:

"I didn't know how to get coal to Romania a month ago but I do now," said Michael McQuillen, chief executive of Alpha Natural Resources, the coal miner in Virginia formed by First Reserve, the largest private equity firm focused on energy assets. Russia, Ukraine and Romania are all looking to buy from the United States, he said.

Selling coal to the Ukraine and Romania is akin to selling coal to Newcastle...

Fossil fuels need to be a thing of the past and it will take impending (or occurring) disaster to really get things moving at a national level. China has a crisis on it's hands but perhaps the rest of the world will take notice and put real money into R&D of renewable energy.

china needs to invade a country with lots of coal.. thats what ___________ would of done.

should we worry about them buying everyone elses n talk about bad for the ozone

move on.... solar power rocks!!

Clean renewable energy.

I like the sounds of the power turbines that are submerged in high current water areas. I think that the animal rights activist need to take a break on their worry about the fish for a while too. We have been stripping the oceans of animal life for centuries. You can build a fence around the submerged turbines. God knows they know how to build a net/fence to trap the animals, they can make one too keep them out. This will result in saving land mass. Should we worry about a few fish or continue to burn off mass amounts of fossil fuel and choke ourselves to death. Where is the common sense here?

How could this be true? Can you imagine if this were true of Oil? There would be mass hysteria, not to mention $20 a gallon gas. If I lived in China, I would be freaking out right now.

We should sell some of our coal and get out of this deep hole of debt we are in with them. As a major producer of coal, we know they are going to be knocking on our door.

@StuntBunny
Do you live in China? Maybe they are freaking out.

Thats messed up. I know this would happen to the world's most polluted country.

Damn, now who am I gonna get to make my coal?

to educate those who are downing china for its coal use, it is trying to use other sources for energy. the three gorges dam will be the largest dam in the world. construction began in 1994 and won't be completed until 2011. it's output will be over 18,000 megawatts annually which will provide electricity for a good hundred million or two chinese. thats a huge amount of people to take off coal energy. is a dam the best, no. does it work. yes. are they trying? yes. its hard to run a nation when you have approx. 2 billion of them to worry about and a pesky little thorn in your side called tibet and taiwan

I just hope it gets worse for China

thats why we gotta stop withall this fossil fuels shit! its obviously not getting us anywhere but a dead end...

Great. Less junk for the us to buy.

Does anyone hear that? It sounds like an army of environmentalists going "I told you so".
Sorry China, but action ---> consequence. You could've invested in any of the numerous existing forms of renewable energy but you chose the cheaper alternative. How many goddamn times we do we have to say it - you WILL run out.

We're worried about China not going green? Problem solved.

praise be to geothermal energy. they are called nonrenewable for a reason.

The US is a major miner of Coal ore. As bad as this sounds this may help the balance of trade and may actually slow the overheated Chinese market

I just wonder what China's response to this will be. I suspect that they have known about this for some time, and we are only learning of it now because the state media decided to tell us. will China find some less powerful nations to bully around or get seriously aggressive with? I don't see too many other alternatives unless of course they can come up with a new energy source in less than 2 weeks. and @ diode, the Three Gorges Dam is displacing millions of people, destroying countless artifacts, and flooding hundreds of thousands of miles of populated areas. are they trying? yes. are they failing miserably and exploiting millions of people? yes.

I suppose that if anyone has a massive supply of coal sitting around, they've just become quite wealthy.

I hope ours runs out soon too. we need to get off that shit or we're gonna kill everything.

Without coal, it seems that China would have to import mass amounts from other high coal producing countries, simply to keep their electricity going. This kind of reliance on foreign resources is reminiscent of a current world power's dependence on a certain petroleum product. As we watch ourselves shift towards "greener" forms of energy to power our homes and cars, it seems like china might have to follow suit and begin to paint everything green to present a better image to the world.
With so much green going around, I think just seeing the color on anything besides a tree will make me gag.

If this is true, there are far more pressing concerns than the environmental impact. China relies on coal for 70+% of it's energy. In 12 days, what is going to happen? It's not as if they can switch over to 'green' energy to overnight.

If a country of such global, economical and industrial influence were to have such an energy deficit, the ramifications across the world will be massive ... really, really massive.

jh, the $4 gas is already here. I heard it today.

well hopefully it makes them want to change to a more effecient fuel source. coal is smogged up there part of the world enough.

aren't 1/3 of all deaths in china pollution-related? that's disgusting.

Frankly I am glad their coal is running out. They won't be able to continue to pollute the atmosphere anymore. They will be forced to consider alternative energy producing systems.

With that huge river they got running through their country you would think they would use that more to generate power.