A triple shock slows China’s growth

IN A SCENE from “Manufactured Landscapes”, a documentary released in 2006, Edward Burtynsky, a landscape photographer, seeks permission to take pictures of the black mountains of Chinese coal awaiting shipment in Tianjin, an industrial city near Beijing. “Through his camera lens, through his eyes, it will appear beautiful,” Mr Burtynsky’s assistant assures his sceptical host. That turns out to be not quite true. Through the photographer’s lens, the piles of coal have a dark, satanic geometry—not beautiful exactly, but awe-inspiring in their immensity.Looking at those pictures (one of which is shown above), it is hard to imagine China could ever run short of this fuel. But in recent months, the black pyramids have been not quite immense enough. A scarcity of coal, which accounts for almost two-thirds of China’s electricity generation, has contributed to the worst power cuts in a decade. And the blackouts have, in turn, hurt growth. “Our economy is developing very fast,” Mr Burtynsky’s host tells him, so as to excuse the gloom and dirt in the air. But that is not quite true any more either.