Washington Post: How China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th Century
China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th Century.
It’s a statistic so mind-blowing that it stunned Bill Gates and inspired haiku. But can it be true, and, if so, how? Yes, China’s economy has grown at an extraordinary rate, and it has more than four times as many people as the United States. But the 1900s were America’s great period of expansion, the century in which the U.S. built almost all of its roads and bridges, the Interstate system, the Hoover Dam, and many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. And China and the U.S. are roughly the same size in terms of geographic area, ranking third and fourth in the world, respectively.
WNU Editor: I can attest to these stats. I have been going back and forth to China since the 1980s .... and every-time I go there I am always shocked to see how much everything has changed.
2 comments:
WNU,
What is it about communists and concrete? I remember the "5year plans" and announcements of goals met almost always of concrete, steel, and harvests. Anyway, as usual the WaPo in it's brilliant analytical stupidity doesn't take into account different construction techniques and completely different design culture.
Well after rereading the article, I almost have to take back what I said. The writer almost, nearly, came very close to explaining construction culture and design differences waaay down in around paragraph 12 or 13 out of 16.
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