China Reduces its CO2 emissions

Algore is undoubtedly pleased.

China has cut its CO2 emissions.

But the 20 million Chinese laborers who have lost their jobs and their incomes may not be as thrilled.

In the past months, about 70,000 factories nationwide have closed. Beijing official Chen Xiwen estimates about 20 million migrant workers have lost jobs. Tens of thousands of villages in the countryside depend on migrant workers' income.

China analysts say the spike in unemployment has caught China off guard. "The central government is now telling local governments to provide help and job training, re-employment," says Wenran Jiang, a political science professor and China expert at Canada's University of Alberta. [SNIP]

"Many migrant workers have lived a very hard and simple life," he says. "They have some savings for a rainy day like this, so in the short-term they may be able to cope -- but if eight or 12 months later things continue to deteriorate, it could turn volatile."

Most farmers like the Tangs do not get social security. So villagers who lost factory jobs have few choices except go back to farming. But it is not easy.

Farming feeds people but brings little cash. Millions of the jobless are second-generation migrant workers, young people who grew up in cities.

"It would be very hard," says Tang Hui. "I have never farmed. I don't know how to do it."

Just a reminder to all those CO2 reduction fanatics that there is a human cost to green progress. Hopefully this is not a preview of what could happen in America if our government keeps rushing headlong into socialist economic policies.