Late News

I sat last night watching German late news on Channel One (ARD).  Hot topic near the end?  Carbon-neutral status of Bhutan.

First, this was a 'pat-on-the-back' type segment....they were succeeding in being totally carbon-neutral.  

How they primarily did it....hydro-electric power.  Then on the 2nd part of the segment....they were in some type of tree-planting agenda.  

So....there were a number of things which ARD left out, and I kinda noticed it.

GDP of Bhutan? $3,144 (ranked 124th in the world).  If you ran the total GDP....it's ranked 178th in the world at $2.6-billion.

Location?  If you tested Germans....I suspect 10-percent would know it's in Asia, but fewer than 1-percent could identify it on a map. It's above Bangladesh, and wedged against the mountains. 

To make it into the carbon-neutral numbers?  Well....basically it helps to have no real industry, no enormous commerce, most people in the farming occupation, no civil wars, a low population of 720,000, a king who is both king and PM, a massive amount of the public as Buddhists, limited tourism (they mandate you need to show spending ability of $200 per day), and marginal growth.  

It's a simple formula....if you want to be carbon-neutral....just be like Bhutan.  I suspect if you showed the full dynamic....the bulk of German society would say 'no'.  

GDP and commerce making it awful hard to reach carbon-neutral status?  Yeah, and it's a serious burden to 'lessen' yourself....while pushing an agenda to have a happy society.  

Course, if you consider the population decline going on in Germany (luckily for the nation, immigration/asylum is hindering that)....it's a plus-up for carbon-neutral goals.  

If the present numbers were to continue (say for 200 years), we'd have a nation of people only two-thirds the size of present Germany, and probably easily reaching carbon-neutral status without any agenda or money spent.  

Note, I'm not slamming Bhutan.  Whatever money that the King had his hands on...was well-spent on the hydro-electric production...rather than subways or train-stations, or Berlin airports.  I'd also note that avoiding civil conflict or hot political debate...probably has benefited them in dozens of ways.  

If anything, ARD ought to spend an entire hour talking about the Kingdom of Bhutan, and how smart spending might be a better goal in the end.