Problem with these Journos/Economists is that they always got to beat their own drum and mostly let their own skewed views get in the way of reality.
Remember the beat up over the "2000 bug"...economists and Journos predicted Global catastrophe and got gullible Governments to spend squillons of research dollars to "study the phenomena"...what phenomena...nothing happened.
Remember these same folks were merrily predicting endless boom times ahead...but they never saw the economic crash coming.
Remember these same folks were actually recommending that us mere mortals jump on board the "sub-prime" showboat...how many Americans (and some others) lost everything due to this piece of treasured wisdom from the "gurus"
These same folks are now back on the bandwagon and off again with another round of wise predictions..and us idiots read them and believe them...again. We are gluttons for punishment aren't we !!!
Thereis a fundamental flaw in the economic aruement put forwrd by Gizell, and that centres around 1.3 Billion Chinese !!! To keep this many people in a basic life, with no frills, requires the economy of China to grow at 6 % per annum. Population growth..even at their reduced level, will add 4% to the population eqch year...never mind the growth in demand for some of the "luxuries" we in the West take for granted.
There is no way that Chinas growth can ever get below 6 %...unless there is such a disater, it would not matter anyway.
As for energy and resources, yes China is a huge consumer of energy...why do you think they spend such vast amounts of money on stuff like the 3 gorges project. China is also the country that is replacing fossil fuel power generation the fastest in the world.
As for resources and raw materials, they will never be a problem, Australia for instance has the reserves and capacity to support an expansion of demand for coal, gas, iron ore, nikel, and alumina for as much as they want for the next 500 years.
The real problem, in the psyche of these doomsayers is that they are completely incapable of facing the reality that the USA may not be the most important and dominant force on the planet for ever. and that gives them pain !! So they are desperate to rationalise why China must falter in its charge to be the economic (and thus the power base) superpower over the next 10 years or so.
Just ask the Romans, The Goths, The Brits and all the other global superpowers of their day....nothing lasts forever.
David