Just plain gross
Check out this picture from China. Unbelievable, isn't it? The boom in China's economy has been done at the expense of the environment and ultimately at the expense of peoples' health. Can you imagine breathing in this kind of pollution every day? (The man in the picture is sweeping coal dust off the road - coal dust that falls from the sky due to their coal-burning plants for electricity.) Apparently out of the 30 top polluted cities in the world, China is home to 20 of them. The Olympic committee is in a tizzy right now because the air quality in Beijing is horrible and the athletes are going to suffer. Duh. Did they not realize that this was a major problem when they handed the games to China? 20 years from now there will be a huge population of ex-elite athletes who are dying from emphysema and various forms of cancer.
If you ever get a chance, watch the documentary called "Manufactured Landscapes". It's all about the price that has been paid to the landscapes in China all in the name of technology. And I believe that it was a Canadian who filmed it.
posted by Marta at
10:59 am
3 Comments:
It is just absolute carnage in the Pearl River Delta area, where most of the stuff one buys at Walmart is made. Plating companies dumping waste full of heavy metals directly into the river; coal fired electrical stations with no scrubbers and stacks under 100' high; raw sewage everywhere. You go days and days and days without seeing or hearing a bird.
And there is a complete disregard for even the slightest bit of occupational safety - no safety shoes, safety glasses, light curtains, double palm activited switches, etc. Folks are welding using sunglasses; painting without respirators; running presses on open stroke flywheels.
And almost all the manufaturing workers are women - easier to control (frighten?) than the men.
And any material that can be possibly substitued in manufacturing to make anything cheaper is done - like using a lighter gauge wire or an unapproved paint. CSA, UL, IMDS requirements? No one cares and the inspectors that are supposed to enforce this are bought off.
The whole thing is astounding. But there is a lot of money being made and everyone has their hand out.
And everyday the thousands of Walmarts in North America are full of people buying junky $99 Chinese lawnmowers that you throw away after one summer (if it doesn't fly apart and maim you first).
But the Beijing Olympics should be nice and smog free - all industry will be ordered shut down for a month in preparation, under penalty of death for violaters.
But I suppose it's win/win. They get a dollar a day (for a 10-12 hour day) and I get a $99 lawnmower. However, it would work much better if China was on another planet I didn't live on.
10:48 pm
I agree, but unfortunately we in North America will need to really scale back our demand for consumer goods from China. With all the toy recalls that should be sending us a warning. First, why do kids these days (OK I sound like a really old cranky person!) need as many toys as they have. I went into my neighbours yard the other day and it looked like an explosion in a toy factory. And they only have two kids. My niece asked for another Barbie doll for her birthday - that would make 11 that she has - I flatly said no (I only had one Barbie as a child - my friends and I got together to play with our Barbies). But her mother gave me heck for denying my niece her needs. I told her ' Unless my niece is going to die if she doesn't get another Barbie, I'm not interested). I've stopped going to the Dollar stores since 95% of the stuff sold there is from China. We just have to say NO more often.
9:58 am
Interesting to know.
3:35 am
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