Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

In the wake of China's President Hu Jintao visit to the U.S. much of the attention of the media and of the politicians has concentrated on "China's voracious appetite for oil", on its "exceptional growth" and on the "unsustainable demand for oil" that the world will have to deal with in the next years because of China.

And it is certainly true that China's demand for oil and energy altogether is growing faster than in any other country, and "experts" are expecting to see it increase even more: the Washington Post, for example, reminds us that

over the next 15 years, the number of automobiles in China is expected to increase fivefold, helping to double China's overall demand for oil, which has already passed Japan's to become the second-largest in the world.

while the New York Times never forgets to point out that

the Energy Department estimates that China's demand will more than double, to 14.2 million barrels a day, by 2025

The funny thing about all this is that we never pay enough attention to the fact that the US is currently consuming 21 millions barrels of oil per day, that is, almost the double of what China is expected to consume in 20 years (and more than 3 times of what China currently consumes).
And it's also funny that we don't even try to calculate how much US demand will grow, since from 1995 to 2004 U.S. oil imports grew by 3.9 million barrels a day while China's grew by 2.8 million barrels a day.
And probably even funnier is the fact that every single American consumes as much oil per day as 14 Chinese - and that if pro capite consumption were equal to the one in the U.S., China would use 90 millions barrels per day of oil (compared to the 6.3 it uses now)
But probably the funniest thing is to hear Robert Zoellick, deputy secretary of state, say:

China's involvement with troublesome states indicates at best a blindness to consequences, and at worst something more ominous

Yeah, Rob, "involvement with troublesome states" (just like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan - do you think an invasion like the Iraqi one can be considered an "involvement"?) indicates something quite ominous.

Well, what can I say: double standards ARE funny, after all!