Yet another successful American export product is facing stiff competition from China: pollution. China, where factories are springing up like dandelions and whose labor force is cheap and plentiful, is able to churn out pollution at an unprecedented rate. And the prices! Now you can afford to get emphysema and lung cancer. Once, America was the world leader in the bad-air industry -- so much so, a recent Nova episode credited export of American pollution as a contributor to the disastrous famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s. Ah, those heady days of world power ...
Today, sadly, China has surged ahead in the game and left America in a paltry second place. A recent AP article points to China as the producer of Seattle's hazy new skyline. But a message to all you Grist office workers, from here in Los Angeles: Before you go bragging about your beautiful new orangey red sunsets, remember that down here our smog is homegrown, and yours has that little sticker that says "Made In China."
Comments
View as Threaded
bookerly Posted 4:33 pm
24 Apr 2006
This posting is a prime example of China bashing. I urge people to read the AP article carefully. It includes Siberian forest fires as part of the problem (not in China), and uses a lot of careful words like "may" "can" and talk about what could happen in the future.
A couple of points. When Chinese pollution arrives in America (to the extent that it does), remember that a lot of comes from producing American consumer goods at a cheap price. One might regard this as chickens coming home to roost.
FWIW, American pollution from the Midwest causes similar problems in New England. And I recall as a young lad reading about Europeans complaining about American pollution crossing the Atlantic to Europe and angering the Europeans (to no avail).
As for the dust from dust storms, note that it comes from the Gobi Desert, which is in Mongolia as well as China (do all Asian countries look alike?), blaming China exclusively for the sand is not accurate.
China has hardly surpassed America as a source of pollution. But blaming China instead of trying to solve the problem certainly seems to be a growing industry!
If America had signed on the Kyoto Treaty, then it might be trying to make things better instead of blaming everyone else.
Patrick
Permalink
Vincenze Posted 6:54 pm
25 Apr 2006
I'm not sure if Patrick and I read the same article cause I took it to mean something different entirely, maybe I missed something.
I took this article to mean that Americans (or westerners in general) should stop pointing their fingers at China for being such a big polluter of the world. That is of course since much of China's manufacturing that results in pollution is a result of western companies shipping their labour to China cause it's cheaper. Um, so really it's "our pollution".
That's how I took it and I agree totally, in fact, and picture a light bulb above my rusty head if you would... it proves how hypocritical the US government was in rejecting Kyoto, based on the whole "it's unfair economically, sob, sob, that the developed world don't have to make their targets sob, sob"...
Yes, much clearer now and to think how many times I've looked and seen "made in China", thanks.
Vincenze.
http://vincenze.com
Permalink