China pushes ‘Green GDP’: A Scene Set For Change

It wasn’t exactly the Oscars. The entertainment kicking off the second annual “Green China Champions” awards show, televised in late December, was three tuxedoed tenors warbling on about the motherland’s “green dreams.” The room went pitch-black and then arose deafening sounds of power drills and heavy trucks, followed by a photo montage of dust storms over Beijing, factory detritus in the Huai River and other environmental filth. Then came the winners, including government statistician Gao Minxue, who did not thank the little people but did baldly acknowledge that she and her colleagues faced “difficult problems” in their efforts to promote the concept of “green GDP.”
Newsweek/MSNBC