Why doesn't anyone complain about China's environmental record?

Question

It just seems like all these liberal environmental groups have been busy bashing the US for the past decade that nobody has paid attention to China. So, China gets about 3 weeks worth of criticism for their pollution, then after the Olympics these enviroment lovers will forget about what is going on in China and go back to bashing the US. Has the environmental movement become the hate america movement?

Answer 1

First you have to realize that China gets a free pass on most of these things because they are technically a socialist state. If you give lip service to socialism you can get away with almost anything and have all the left wing true believers protecting you from justice. They are still moaning and groaning about how we treated poor Saddam, why, because he was a good guy. No because he claimed to be a socialist and a follower of Joe Stalin!

If you first drape the banner of socialism over the shoulders of your movement you can get away with almost any crime in the book.

Answer 2

China is poised to be THE world economic superpower, surpassing even the United States. No one wants to get on their bad side when they will soon control the world economy. You can't compete with an economy where labor is dirt-cheap and there aren't all these pesky human rights and environment laws to get in the way. China will eventually pay a price for it's trashing of the environment but hey, if a million people die every year, there's 10 million more waiting to take their place.

Answer 3

See where money go. This is all matter of money making not the environment saving.

Answer 4

Some of us do! Yes we complain about you Americans but we also complain about China and India and ourselves.

It's a horrible thing that complaining does nothing (or so it seems) the only way to be proved right is for our fears to be true and I'd rather be wrong and be called a 'stupid hippy' rather than be right.

But right enough global warming isn't able to be ignored anymore. God help us. I hate to think what my son will have to face in 30 years time. How the next generations will resent us! and they won't even care that some of us fought against it! It'll be like n**i Germany in that they'll blame the lot of us, and won't even care that some of us did our best against it! :(

History books will just write us off as the generation that screwed up the planet...

Answer 5

China's economy expands 8 percent a year it will catch up to the United States in consumption per person by 2031. China's estimated 5 billion people in in2031 will be consuming the equivalent of two thirds of the current world grain harvest. Their paper consumption at US per capita level will be double current world paper production and there go the the worlds forests. China will have 3 automobiles for every four people in 2031 it's oil consumption will be 99 million barrels a day. The current world production of oil is 84 million barrels a day. What China is teaching us is that the Western economic model - the fossil fuel based economy the throw away economy - is not going to work for China. Our challenge is a future powered by renewable resourses of energy. The challenge is to accelerate the evolution of the new economy because we do not have a lot of time to progress to sustain the economic future and sustain life as we know it on planet earth.

Answer 6

they kill people.

and you're worried about trees?

people do complain.

but maybe it's useful to put one's energies where there is some hope of success.

Answer 7

I don't live in China, I do live in the U.S. I am the most interested in where I live, and what I have to breath.

We need to be worrying about our environment before we start fixing someone else.

Answer 8

yea okay..what is complaining going to do..and we need to fix ourselves before we try to go bash other countries enviroment problems

Answer 9

There are people criticizing China's environmental record. The problem is that nobody really has enough data. The same is true about India. I imagine with the Olympics the whole world is going to get a reality check as well as China. I can't wait to see what will happen after we see China's true colors.

Answer 10

Yes, plenty has been said about China's poor record. Many documentaries have been made. Sometimes the comparison is made to the US Pre 70s.

But per capita they are still behind where the US was - they just don't have enough cars or a high enough standard of living. Plenty of the pollution they are generating is in the name of exports - some of which you probably own - does that stop us from buying Chinese goods?

And I agree that first we need to help them stop killing 100s of workers in their coal mines (also like the Old US).

Our high standard of living and strong economy has allowed us to make great strides. And we must continue to hold up the high standards if we wish to influence any other nation. The fact is the our environmental impact per person is still #1 in the world!