It's always interesting to read comments about the rudeness of Beijingers by Americans.  Someone named Ben Blanchard says " Wang expressed concern the 15 million residents of Beijing may not yet be up to the task of playing host to the 2008 Olympics, worrying perhaps that ingrained habits like pushing, spitting and shouting could unnerve foreign guests."

  Just to address these for those who have never been to Beijing.  Pushing.  Does he mean entering and leaving buses?  Yes, you have to push through crowds.  When I lived in Boston, you had to do the same thing on the subway if you wanted to get on or off.  Tokyo is famous for it.  San Francisco buses can be included (many are the times I heard people pushing their way through practically screaming at people to get out of their way.) Maybe Mr. Blanchard has never taken mass transit outside of China?  Generally, the Chinese do it without shouting,  yelling or anger, which puts them ahead of people in America who imagine they are more "civilized".  (Ever watch crowds at sports events, or rock cocnerts?)

   As for spitting, most people don't carry tissues (expense, if you are very poor).  Everyone knows the streets are dirty (people generally don't walk barefoot).  Spitting is better than rubbing it on your sleeve (though some foreigners are forever unnerved to see it), and is probably more sanitary (since the cold germs don't come in contact with anyones hands, most likely place to spread them).  That said, I have seen people spit in America as well, and England, and Canada, and ... well, every country I have ever been too.  For some reason white people are obsessed with yellow people who spit.  Curious.

   As to shouting, compared to New Yorkers?  Or people from Chicago?  Or what?  This was actually the first time I ever heard Beijingers accused of shouting a lot.

   If people want to know about China, they should read Chinese sources as well as foreigners, or they could see how Americans are depicted in Chinese tv (must be accurate, eh?  HAHA!).

patrick in beijing

Sorry, this is not quite the time to return to the fascinating subject of man-hugging.  Nor do I think it is worthwhile to pursue Patrick a Beijing's curious observation that New Yorkers "shout."  (We do?; not this one, anyway.)

But it is frustrating to read yet another example of pooh-poohing the planting of trees.  This has already been discussed a fair amount in Gristmill.  I believe a consensus was sort of reached, to the effect that the planting of trees in the right local circumstances, especially in tropical latitudes, can have a positive effect as part of a carbon-offsetting program; but it cannot be the entire solution; and in fact the professional facilitators of carbon offsetting, such as that learned gentleman, Adam something?, who wrote at length in Gristmill, do not rely exclusively on tree-planting.

A small point that I had made, I think in a thread begun by Gar Lipow, was that the planting of trees and other vegetation, even when it does not directly offset the emission of CO2, nevertheless may to some extent counteract the effects of global warming in certain places, however indirectly, e.g. the creeping desertification of the Sahara margin and the Sahel in North Africa, and the threat to biodiversity in North America as the Boreal Forest is increasingly compromised.

Planting mangroves and other native plants in Florida belongs to this consideration.  As Ken Caldeira said, planting trees "is probably a nice thing to do."  That is certainly true in South Florida, a region whose unique natural hydrology, supporting the Everglades and adjacent wetlands, has been damaged and altered by on-going development.  The increasing intensity of hurricanes -- the relation of which to global warming is of course a Gristmill topic -- is one more threat to that environment.

Never mind that "An Inconvenient Truth" famously shows a projection of the whole region being inundated as sea levels rise.  Meanwhile, at least, it seems justifiable for the NFL to continue with the mangrove-planting project, and to connect it to the specific dangers Florida faces from global warming, even as they make clear that it is not meant to be "a quantitative solution to the real problem."

Of course, still better would be for them to tell everybody to stay home and watch the thing on TV.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

   Dear CanisCandida,

       Thanks so much for defending New Yorkers, I don't think they shout (none of my friends or relatives), I merely wanted to point out the absurdity of making sweeping generalizations about the people of any city.  Alas, I mistakenly told one of my students about the comments about Beijing, and she looked like she was going to tear up, couldn't understand why people say these things about the city she loves.  Ah well, part of the George Bush school of diplomacy and international relations (you mean, if I insult people, they won't love me?).

      Florida is interesting.  I was there last summer visiting.  Stayed in a small community of macmansions and boats.  Canals parallel the streets, so people can either drive their SUVs or their boats.  Mostly well off retirees.  

      There were protected areas nearby, but the brutal march of "civilization" was steadily encroaching on them.  When we talk about planting trees, we should remember that in some cases, we are replacing trees (or trying to), and this is not a bad thing.

      I am off to the train station to sit my aging bones on a hard seat for many hours.  At least I will have some lovely young students to accompany me.

pace,

patrick

Your system seems to have garbled some of my hotlinks at the end above.

However check out our website topics list under 'Environment' for the uncomfortable truths behind their hype.

Martin Slavin