Smithsonian: Natural Gas Fracking May Be the Only Industry in China That’s Developing Slowly

In China, everything is booming. Last year, the country’s worst-performing year in more than a decade, the economy grew by a more-than-respectable 7.8 percent. China is now the number two economy in the world, and this rampant growth has brought a surge in pretty much everything you can think of. The soaring need for materials and energy has sent the country racing to build natural resource, energy infrastructure and housing on a massive scale.

Early last year, says The Week, the Ark Hotel, a 30-story building, went up in just over two weeks. In the housing industry, says the Daily Mail, there are plans to build “20 cities a year for the next 20 years.”

China is the world’s largest producer of wind power. And, already the second-largest solar energy provider, China is looking to “double its installed capacity for solar electricity” by the end of the year. Even after a recent turn away from coal power, the country is still planning hundreds of new plants.  MORE