Massive air pollution over China ( pic)

[dixiegrrrrl]

link to story:
http://io9.com/5399165/portrait-of-a-polluted-land

[jwirr]

1. They are going to pay a massive price for their modern economy. nt

[rollingrock]

6. So is the whole planet

air pollution and greenhouse gases have consequences for the entire planet, not just China.

[jwirr]

10. I know. How much good can a few of us do when we are facing this

kind of neglect.

[rollingrock]

13. Start by boycotting Chinese products

at the individual level. various human rights groups, labor groups in the US could also begin a campaign to urge people to boycott Chinese goods. the AFL-CIO could mount a strong campaign to urge their membership to boycott Chinese goods, for example. why don't they?

at the national level, the US government could begin a campaign to boycott Chinese goods unless they started to meet the same environmental and labor standards that companies in the US have to comply with, under OSHA for example. they could have told US consumers to boycott Chinese products, etc. the US has a huge influence on Chinese industrial practices, simply by being the chief foreign consumer of China's products. but of course, the US government will never do those things because corporate America benefits directly from the cheap labor, lack of clean production standards, lack of human rights and labor standards in China, etc. so I guess they would never allow that to happen.

US politicians love to bitch about China and human rights to score some cheap political points but they never actually do anything about it. Time to put their money where their mouth is.

[joshcryer]

14. The recession and "new consumers" have done this to an extent.

People being more frugal and not buying as many useless knick nacks. China was losing like 1000 companies a day when the recession was in full bloom.

[endless october]

2. and i'm supposed to believe they'll sign up for Copenhagen

and obey it?

right.

this is where your outsourced manufacturing has gone and will continue to go.

[excess_3]

9. China has ratified the Kyoto treaty

and is in complete compliance

[endless october]

11. lolz

[notesdev]

3. That stuff doesn't stay over there, either

A non-insignificant amount gets carried right over the Pacific, and deposited in Washington, Oregon, and California.

[rollingrock]

4. Free market capitalism at its finest

gotta love it.

[Gregorian]

5. That's where our stuff comes from.

What I mean by that is, we are responsible as well. There is no free ride. We can clean it up a bit, but the reality is we're polluting the planet. You buy a tv, they pollute for you. And when I say you I mean us.

There is a price to pay for comfort. At least in these numbers. We could have done this if we had just stayed at 3 billion, 4 billion. Maybe not even those numbers. But we had to grow. Now we're stuck with only one way out. Now we have to sacrifice and work to try and massage the mess.

[pscot]

7. The notorious "brown cloud"

of southeast Asia. Makes for some spectacular sunsets here in the upper left-hand corner.

[madokie]

8. 'ssomewhere back in the early 70s

I paid a visit to riverside california and the air was so thick with smog that you could see it between your eyes and your outstretched hand. I think they can clean china's air up like we did in riverside. If they want to that is

[joshcryer]

12. BTW, this is the country that is supposed to bring hope to the environment.

This is the same country that will release more CO2 than all other countries combined within the next 30 years.