Re: <nettime> Adam Tooze: Politics don?t matter; market forces shape our

Thanks for sharing the Tooze essay. Brian's last lines of comment hjit on a remarkable metaphor

>A full connection to the global financial markets would be the equivalent
>of throwing gasoline on China's economic bonfire. At the very least,
>geopolitical embers will fly.

nettimers might like to look at Audrey Wiozniak's report on the scale of underground coal fires. at China Dialogue, https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/6296-The-world-s-longest-burning-fires-China-s-unseen-story

The Liuhuanggou was officially extinguished in 2004, 130 years after it started - even Xinhua reported that year that this fire"emitted 100,000 tons of harmful gases - including carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide - and 40,000 tons of ashes every year" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3978329.stm)

There are round a hundred coal fires burning across the northern coal belt, maybe more. The Liughuanggou mine seems to have been reignited by wildcat miners. They too of course can form part of the supply chain, though they might just be scavenging for their own use. There are several reports that mining continues at the same sites where firefighters are struggling to extinguish long-running fires. There has been a drastic cutback in the number of operating mines recently as China moves to improve its air quality and meet emissions targets; but Brian's metaphor has a horribly real counterpart.

Surely no need to mention that coal also provides plastics, many of which find their way into covering for wire and substrates for DVDs etc etc - we westerners are also complicit . . .

sean

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