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186 Comments
- purplesawdust, on 02/23/2009, -3/+72So we are to blame for china's extreme industrialization?
- DeviantDragon, on 02/23/2009, -5/+56***** you, Kanye.
- sangjmoon, on 02/23/2009, -7/+43China says it's not to blame? Fine. They can just stop producing the stuff for export. Problem solved.
- kent1146, on 02/23/2009, -8/+42I call *****.
I am Chinese, and I can tell you that Chinese people don't give a ***** about the environment, global warming, or endangered species. Chinese people DO have a culture that worships money (and food). It's cheaper to run industry that doesn't care about pollution. That's why the air quality in major Chinese cities is *****. - phreak79, on 02/23/2009, -16/+40We need to get beyond this nationalism and start treating climate change as a global problem. We all live on the same planet after all.
- JohnDo, on 02/23/2009, -14/+33Of course... we're also probably to blame for bird flu and lead in toys. USA! USA!
- kierucom, on 02/23/2009, -3/+21So now I can refuse to buy Chinese products laced with lead-based paints and other toxins and feel like I am doing them a favor, right?
- jedicor, on 02/23/2009, -3/+21This just in, apparently:
Cutting costs on proper facilities in order to produce things for a tenth the price of your competitors can, and frequently will, come back to bite you in the end.
I've been over to some injection molding facilities in China. What would have cost an American facility a hundred grand in safety mechanisms, emission control, hazard prevention, etc, would probably cost them five to ten grand. For one, they just don't care, and two, it's much cheaper. - drmangrum, on 02/23/2009, -4/+21Hey China, does this mean that since America is one of the leading exporter of goods that it's not responsible for it's emissions either?
- BigManOnCampus, on 02/23/2009, -9/+26Obviously, it's all America's fault, always.
"Nu uh! We asked for eggs and milk, and Dad made us eat this!!!" - dusanmal, on 02/23/2009, -2/+17Your data is too old. Check the newest UN study:
China 20% of world population, 33% of co2 emissions
USA, 4.5% of world population and 10% of co2
Than add the GWP from epublicus comment in the picture. So:
China 5.5 %CO2 global emissions per percent of GWP
USA 0.39 %CO2 global emissions per percent of GWP
So USA production is on average 14.1 times cleaner than Chinese. - Curvearth, on 02/23/2009, -2/+17It's not like the Americans don't pay for the products. The Chinese decided to build those factories because they value the profits they get from them more than the clean air they had before (or could have if they spent money on pollution reduction while maintaining production).
Their choice, their consequence. Don't blame the people who are doing nothing but offer a market. - DarkBlueAnt, on 02/23/2009, -5/+19Sorry guys. They're right. It was me. I've been really gassy lately.
- mycoplasma, on 02/23/2009, -3/+14The point he was making was that China is just as responsible (if not more) as the west is.
- bromac, on 02/23/2009, -3/+13People are so petty they don't realize that this isn't a political problem.
Mother nature and harsh realities don't give a ***** about our squabbling. If we don't get it together soon, we're all proper *****. Before ze Germans got here. - Rad1030, on 02/23/2009, -1/+10Geez....sorry for feeding your massive trade surplus.
- drmangrum, on 02/23/2009, -1/+9Popular doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Maybe you should read what was proposed; specifically about "Emissions Trading."
China signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Since then they've overtaken America as the leading polluter. Like most UN programs, it fell flat. The UN is a toothless tiger. - yerdaddy, on 02/23/2009, -1/+9Whaaat?
- inactive, on 02/23/2009, -5/+13It's a werid co-dependent situation:
1. America expands consumerist culture.
2. China ramps up production of cheap goods to meet demand.
3. Cheap goods fuel more consumer demand. Americans rack up personal debt.
4. Chinese economy grows as its manufacturing base expands.
5. American economy in trouble.
6. China buys debt from US with its large cash reserves.
7. American economy collapses.
8. Chinese manufacturing base suffers and its holdings of US debt are now bad debts.
9. American researchers demonize China.
10. ????
11. America bombs the living ***** out of China?
12. American economy recovers based on military spending.
13. Later, Chinese economy recovers based on post-war building boom.
14. China invents great new animation genres and porn genres.
15. American boys discover both, aschewing females and further driving down birth rate.
16. China takes over America when they start screaming for more labor when the demographic time-bomb hits. - brown2dw, on 02/23/2009, -1/+9Well truly if they were concerned about emission problems, they would've actually put emissions standards into place and not just let companies emit like crazies. As we know they don't have any standards so china don't complain because of what you are doing for us.
- maximilen, on 02/23/2009, -6/+14Same thing was true of America, the last 100 years so so up till the 80's-ish...
In a developing industrial county, production and power is the goal, not saving the environment (or people, or anything else). - kelmaster1, on 02/23/2009, -1/+9I think a better question might be what if Western Industrialism didn't reach China? Would they be better off? From the looks of history, probably not, but who knows. Plus, business people don't have to abide by ethics. What business wouldn't want to increase profits by manufacturing their items in an area with lower restrictions and far lower cost? Still, it was Chinese capitalism and their government that allowed this to happen in the first place.
- rrife, on 02/23/2009, -1/+9Facts don't matter on Digg.
- epublicus, on 02/23/2009, -2/+9More interesting statistics:
China, 20% of world population, 20% of co2 emissions. = 6% Gross World Product
USA, 4.5% of world population and 20% of co2 = 25.4% GWP - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+7And they are not forcing us to buy products from them.
- edwartica, on 02/23/2009, -1/+8Dad is great....give us chocolate cake.
- bri719, on 02/23/2009, -1/+8FTA: • Consumer exports behind 15% of emissions - study
so, what about the OTHER 85%? which leads me to believe their complete lack of environmental controls and practices, would make the chunk comprising the 15% cited, significantly smaller than it currently is.
another case of blame whomever's convenient from the Chinacoms. - vpshockwave, on 02/23/2009, -2/+9*More pollution
- NinjaPablo, on 02/23/2009, -3/+9Clearly, the solution is for all production on the planet to stop. Carbon emission problem solved (except for those pesky humans who keep exhaling carbon dioxide, we've got to do something about them)
- edwartica, on 02/23/2009, -1/+7That's the problem. The US has outsourced most factory jobs to other countries like China. So trying to buy all American goods is really not possible.
- macmcraeart, on 02/23/2009, -2/+8bwahahahahaha - how dare you buy so much lousy ***** from us you capitalist western *****!!!!!
- yerdaddy, on 02/23/2009, -1/+6China could have done it any way they wanted to, and they did.
- nomadxx7, on 02/23/2009, -0/+5No. Case in point: China has shut down a lot of toy factories since the recession has taken hold. No Western market for the goods = layoffs and plant closing in China.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/mar ... - npoc, on 02/23/2009, -1/+6Amen. Charging CO2 to the consuming country will do nothing to encourage environmental protection in the country of origin. America can do nothing to improve/enforce environmental policies in China. China will only fix their environmental issues if they are charged for generating them.
- nomadxx7, on 02/23/2009, -0/+5@broh
The United States sold more than $200 billion worth of aircraft, missiles and space-related equipment in 2007, and $80 billion worth of autos and auto parts. Deere, best known for its bright green and yellow tractors, sold $16.5 billion worth of farming equipment last year, much of it to the rest of the world. Then there are energy products like gas turbines for power plants made by General Electric, computer chips from Intel and fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Household names like GE, General Motors, International Business Machines, Boeing and Hewlett-Packard are among the largest manufacturers by revenue.
I think that paragraph == military industrial complex as a whole. So yes we produce more for the value of the product yet in terms of actual numbers (considering 1 toy train == 1 wind turbine) China still beats us. We outsourced the jobs for consumer goods. The things we are producing now aren't going into the average household. - Noein, on 02/23/2009, -3/+8It's nice to see you stood up and spoke for all 1.3 billion of us.
- HappyScrappy, on 02/23/2009, -1/+5Well, we did then a favor then by collapsing our economy and thus buying less stuff from them. Now who will they blame?
- solid12345, on 02/23/2009, -2/+6Buried for the Guardian.
- diggeratwork, on 02/23/2009, -1/+5y so serious?
- pilgrim3970, on 02/23/2009, -1/+5ok... well then how about we bring the manufacturing back home? We get more jobs, they get less pollution. Problem solved!
- Mullinator, on 02/23/2009, -0/+4The keyword mrtymcfly is 'cheap'. If the west wants cheap products then they are going to be produced in an environmentally unfriendly way. That's just how it is. Environmental regulations drive up the cost. What may seem like a cheap, and green product to manufacture in the United States could be far more expensive to produce in China because of the lack of proper infrastructure that can support more environmentally friendly methods of production.
- CorpT, on 02/23/2009, -0/+4That was a Focker.
- morcheeba, on 02/23/2009, -0/+4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy
- nomadxx7, on 02/23/2009, -0/+4I have a slight problem sending our work to China. Sure it's cheaper goods but my biggest thorn isn't really with them producing cheaper it's that we sold our knowledge and experience for practically nothing. It took trial and error for us to produce machines to industrialize ourselves. Now instead of China having to do the same we give them the patterns/blueprints for the products, the equipment to do it, and they have a low wage workforce. Even a Chinese doctor said on a medical show once that they use radical treatments but that they didn't invent them. We are handing our greatest resource (knowledge) over with no regard.
- emperorpwl, on 02/23/2009, -0/+4If you've read the article, you'd know it's not China who said they're not responsible (at least this time)
"But research published last year by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) suggests that..."
“Dieter Helm, professor of economics at Oxford University, said "focusing on consumption rather than production of emissions is the only intellectually and ethically sound solution"” - plhofmei, on 02/23/2009, -3/+6I am sick and tired of the "west" being blamed for everything that screws the environment. We've worked on cleaner air in the US via emission standards. China's failure to regulate themselves is not OUR fault.
- spthomp, on 02/23/2009, -1/+4I would never expect "West Thanked for Providing Millions of Jobs" as a headline. WTF is wrong with these finger pointers?
- perfectsilence, on 02/23/2009, -2/+5clearly people in America want cheap products, if not China, somebody else would be making them.
- cwilsons, on 02/23/2009, -4/+7"Developing countries are under pressure to commit to binding emissions cuts in Copenhagen. But China is resistant, partly because it does not accept responsibility for the emissions involved in producing goods for foreign markets."
I'll consider China's denial of responsibility when they stop artificially stunting the price inflation of their products. When they allow their economy (read- profit margins) to develop naturally, and then STILL can't satisfy demand enough to warrant an upgrade to their infrastructure- that's when they'll have something to substantiate this position.
You like this situation China- you like to be the cheap manufacturing nation AND a superpower- you can fuel incredible growth and still cry poor about responsibilities. Pathetic cowards. - CorpT, on 02/23/2009, -2/+5You're saying that 50%+ of Americans drive SUVs? Please provide sources.
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