getknk Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 (edited) Huffington Post Link For the past several years, China has been building stuff at a mind-blowing pace. Just how mind-blowing? Here, let's let Bill Gates put it in perspective: Think about this for a second. Between 1901 and 2000, the U.S. built an entire interstate highway system, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam and just about all of its skyscrapers -- to name just a few concrete-intensive things. China did all that, and almost half again, in just three years. On his blog, Gates suggested that all of this concrete had helped pull Chinese out of poverty. But all of this building has also left China with a huge and dangerous property bubble, massive ghost cities and empty housing. Edited June 16, 2014 by getknk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getknk Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 I can't think of the Great Recession Part2 brewing up as part of China's property bubble bursting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybong Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Is it really that much of a surprise. Doesn't it reflect more on the nature of the US progress. US progress for decades being based on "paper" and China's current progress being based on things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme2 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 US - Stick built housing, very little concrete in the foundations - doesn't need to bear much weight, not even cementous/stone roof tiles. Commercia buildings and insfrastructure would use a fair bit. Compare to China, large scle residential build, pretty much all concrete. So that would account for a lot. Still different scale altogether, the Chinese are doing in peacetime what the UK and US only did in wartime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybong Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 But all of this building has also left China with a huge and dangerous property bubble, massive ghost cities and empty housing. and the US has a lot of very rich bankers and politicians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Boy Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 is a gigaton a lot of bags of cement ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 US - Stick built housing, very little concrete in the foundations - doesn't need to bear much weight, not even cementous/stone roof tiles. Commercia buildings and insfrastructure would use a fair bit. Compare to China, large scle residential build, pretty much all concrete. So that would account for a lot. Still different scale altogether, the Chinese are doing in peacetime what the UK and US only did in wartime. good points, but aren't US houses much bigger than Chinese ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveinHope Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 is a gigaton a lot of bags of cement ? It's about 0.5Gt CO2 :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daft Boy Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 That's lots then. Like a trillion light years to our nearest space persons. the mind keeps boggling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme2 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 good points, but aren't US houses much bigger than Chinese ? Yes, but even so if only 1/10th is used for footings and the rest is wood then big difference, also highrise will have large volume taken up by communal areas, stairwells and lift shafts so overall bigger than stated sizes.. US home size has fallen a little since the recession, to 201 m2 (2,164 ft2) in 2009. UK house size is relatively small at 76 m2 (818 ft2) while Canadian houses are quite big at 181 m2 (1,948 ft2). For China the data only reflects urban properties, which now average 60 m2 (646 ft2) and have almost doubled in size in the last 15 years.Read more at http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-house#3RJ2HoY5mjHx3sDc.99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habeas Domus Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Is a chinese ton the same an an american ton? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecrashingisles Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Is a chinese ton the same an an american ton? Not if their one ton soup is anything to go by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Not if their one ton soup is anything to go by. Post of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Not if their one ton soup is anything to go by. Brilliant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScrewsNutsandBolts Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 A cubic mile of concrete would weigh around 10 gigatons, and this is only 2/3 of that. Still a pretty big lump, but perhaps less than people imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balloonist Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 A cubic mile of concrete would weigh around 10 gigatons, and this is only 2/3 of that. Still a pretty big lump, but perhaps less than people imagine. A cubic mile is still a hell of a lot of stuff. It would be enough to cover the whole of Greater London with a 2.5 metre thick layer of concrete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horridbloke Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 is a gigaton a lot of bags of cement ? It's actually just one very large bag of cement. They are trying to use it all up before it goes hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpectrumFX Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 A cubic mile is still a hell of a lot of stuff. It would be enough to cover the whole of Greater London with a 2.5 metre thick layer of concrete. How many Olympic sized swimming pools would it fill up http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=160302&page=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie_George Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 A cubic mile of concrete would weigh around 10 gigatons, and this is only 2/3 of that. Still a pretty big lump, but perhaps less than people imagine. Equivalent to Milton Keynes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 the pebble-dash for growth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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