C3PX said:
To be fair to America, look for some honest statistics of pollution in comparison to population size, and suddenly America looks incredibly clean. Americans in general may not be oppsessive compulsive about being "green" like some European countries are right now (though at this rate it honestly wont be long), but it is very conscious about the enviroment. Though I guess the fact that I ride around in an SUV automatically nullifies my opinion on the matter as well as reduces me to an un enviromentally concious neanderthal.
To be fair to America, look for some honest statistics of pollution in comparison to population size, and suddenly America looks incredibly clean. Americans in general may not be oppsessive compulsive about being "green" like some European countries are right now (though at this rate it honestly wont be long), but it is very conscious about the enviroment. Though I guess the fact that I ride around in an SUV automatically nullifies my opinion on the matter as well as reduces me to an un enviromentally concious neanderthal.
I would only nullify your opinion if you were telling people to "go green" and then driving around in an SUV. I once had a teacher that said "We should be reducing our fuel usage" and yet she drove around in an SUV. I didn't have the chance to say "You should start with yourself first". I had been promoting further oil drilling.
C3PX said:
Once the government starts telling me what cars I can drive and what kind of lightbubls I can use, then you can say China is a magnified version of America all you want, because then it will be true.
Once the government starts telling me what cars I can drive and what kind of lightbubls I can use, then you can say China is a magnified version of America all you want, because then it will be true.
It hasn't quite happened with cars yet, but the government has already banned incandescent light bulbs. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59298. I know that's WorldNetDaily, but the fact is that the government has already mandated that we stop using those bulbs by 2014. Admittedly the amount of mercury in a CFL isn't as dangerous as it has been portrayed to be, but the cleanup necessary isn't as easy as an incandescent bulb (sweep up the glass). If a CFL breaks, you have to open your windows, leave the room for about 15 mins, and put the broken bulb into a bag. And then you're not even suppose to throw a CFL in the regular trash. All that in order to save some energy.
Arnie.d said:
Maybe China as a country will become (is?) the biggest pollutor. But aren't the figures something like: US 4% of the population, 25% of pollution? And why is China polluting like it does? Because the entire western world wants cheap products and we move production over there. Very convenient without all those shitty rules.
Maybe China as a country will become (is?) the biggest pollutor. But aren't the figures something like: US 4% of the population, 25% of pollution? And why is China polluting like it does? Because the entire western world wants cheap products and we move production over there. Very convenient without all those shitty rules.
China pollutes like it does because they can. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with "the western world" and everything to do with not having environmental controls in place. They have a communist government that answers to no one but themselves. If you protest, you're jailed, it's that simple.
On that note, it appears that China is among the countries who have agreed, in principle, to a post-Kyoto protocol treaty. Check the Wikipedia article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Kyoto_Protocol_negotiations_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions.