Most of the consumption excesses people on Lemmy condemn the US for, are enabled and facilitated by China. The entire “disposable crap” culture is only possible because of China and its cheap manufacturing base, and lesser standards of health, safety, environmental protection, etc.
There’s plenty of disposable crap manufactured outside of China including the US. I’m pretty sure if China along with all cheap labor destinations disappeared in cloud or smoke tomorrow, the US multinationals who made their shit there would invest in equipment to make it in the US with less labor and lower the environmental standards to do it, perhaps with the help of internment camped, undocumented immigrant labor. The southern right-to-work, deregulationist states already serve this purpose. Ford is building their new factories in Kentucky, not Michigan.
Another point against is that a lot less disposable crap is consumed in the EU which has just as much access to the China’s manufacturing base.
And so I’m pretty sure this problem isn’t a China problem but a US problem. A systemic one, driven by the incessant search for profit maximization and growth.
I’ve checked and it seems things are not that bad on that front. The identified new Chinese sources were eliminated, if I understand correctly. There are still some sources unaccounted for, which is concerning, but those might be anywhere, not just in China.
Why though?
Most of the consumption excesses people on Lemmy condemn the US for, are enabled and facilitated by China. The entire “disposable crap” culture is only possible because of China and its cheap manufacturing base, and lesser standards of health, safety, environmental protection, etc.
I don’t buy that.
There’s plenty of disposable crap manufactured outside of China including the US. I’m pretty sure if China along with all cheap labor destinations disappeared in cloud or smoke tomorrow, the US multinationals who made their shit there would invest in equipment to make it in the US with less labor and lower the environmental standards to do it, perhaps with the help of internment camped, undocumented immigrant labor. The southern right-to-work, deregulationist states already serve this purpose. Ford is building their new factories in Kentucky, not Michigan.
Another point against is that a lot less disposable crap is consumed in the EU which has just as much access to the China’s manufacturing base.
And so I’m pretty sure this problem isn’t a China problem but a US problem. A systemic one, driven by the incessant search for profit maximization and growth.
Also China recently started producing freons again. I thought we got rid of that problem for good, but no…
This if true is concerning.
I’ve checked and it seems things are not that bad on that front. The identified new Chinese sources were eliminated, if I understand correctly. There are still some sources unaccounted for, which is concerning, but those might be anywhere, not just in China.
Here’s an article, if you were interested: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3065/nasa-funded-network-tracks-the-recent-rise-and-fall-of-ozone-depleting-pollutants/
Thank you 🙏