[Alberta's Child]

By making a statement like that, it tells me that the Chinese basically told us they're not going to be curtailing their consumption anytime soon.

Why would they? Do the Chinese have some kind of moral obligation to curtail their consumption of oil so that Americans can drive $60,000 SUVs and live in 4,000 square foot homes on half-acre lots in the suburbs?

[new cruelty]

It is worth noting that rutles4ever also wrote-

The best thing we, as Americans, can do, is conserve energy, and demand a reduction in the oil tax. And part of conserving energy is being committed to a little bit of change in our lifestyles. More refineries will be of great help, but those don't just pop up overnight, either, and there are so many environmental obstacles, it's almost impossible to get off the ground. So for the forseeable future, it's going to be up to all of us to do our part and stem the cost.

[Rutles4Ever]

I'm not characterizing whether China has an obligation to do something about it and we don't. I'm just observing that China must have been cool to any overtures regarding global conservation (if it even came up, and I can't believe it didn't).