If environmentalists truly cared about the environment, they would be whole heartedly pushing for economic growth.

True, the pall of smog that hangs over all China’s big cities is awful. I too remember the smell and grime of everyone’s coal fires when you walked down any UK street, and when ‘pea-soupers’ were a regular part of life in London. Folk from ‘The Smoke’ must have suffered the same for most of the last 200 years: it was the price of our economic growth, no different to the price that China is paying today. But when you do grow and become rich, you can afford to deal with your pollution. Compared to the necessity of feeding your family, clean air seems a bit of a luxury. And at least now we know how to clean up our city air: the Chinese will not need to re-invent the same technology, so their clean-up will come much faster.

Just as I pointed out last year.