China wants you to pay for cleaning up their mess

I talked to a oncologist yesterday about cancer and environmental triggers that might cause cancer. I mentioned that my friend who got cancer had lived near a SuperFund site. She did not know what a SuperFund site was! Hmm... I wondered how someone could be an expert on cancer and not know what a SuperFund site was? She attributed a lot of the illness to genetics but was not very specific about environmental risks.

According to Bloomberg.com , China is proposing a SuperFund in reverse. Instead of the polluters paying to clean up their mess, they get other countries who by their goods to clean up their mess so they can help save the planet too. They are holding a loaded gun to the heads of developing countries. The rationale is a trade off. If we want a planet, then we will have to pay up; or die. So what we have here is a a new kind of environmental extortion or blackmail. This is the free market at work. Right?

China's latest eco-friendly move

I read it Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse" that one good thing about dictatorships is that the government can easily "mandate" something and people have to comply. I'd rather live in a democracy, however, here is one example of Diamond's argument. China as banned the use of plastic bags. This is great news!

Environmentalist in China Arrested for speaking out! Why it should matter to Americans.

Photo credits: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Photo credits: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Photo credits: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Mr. Wu was sentenced to three years in prison as retribution for blowing the whistle on local officials for allowing Lake Tai in Yixing, China to be used as a giant toilet. Mother Nature had her revenge though. The lake exploded with cyanobacteria and toxic fumes poured out of the lake, creating a hazard for 2.3 million people according to the New York Times.

Mr. Wu, who was sounding the alarm for years, is still sitting in prison from fake charges that he was tortured to confess to. There is a price that people pay in China for sounding the alarm and speaking out about the growing pollution problem.

Why should that matter to us in America? We all live downstream. Over time, all the pollution will move into the ecosystems and make their way into the oceans. The oceans touch us all in some way. But a more immediate concern is our food supply. Americans now import much of its food from other countries.

Here is a quote from the article:
“One letter from local farmers described how a nearby factor making 8-hydroxyquinoline, used as a deodorant and antiseptic, emitted noxious fumes that “make our days and nights impassible.” Another writer referred to a local factory as “ a new Unit 731” named after the Japanese team that conducted chemical warfare experiments in World War II. Members of another group said they did not dare tend their rice paddies without wearing gloves and galoshes because irrigation water caused their skin to peel off."

How do we know where the rice that we eat is grown? How do we know that this rice is not mixed into many of the products that we buy in our country? There is not labeling to show country of origin for any of the food that we eat. We are at risk because our own leaders are bought out by special interests who do not want the American consumer to know that we are buying food that is grown where the water is polluted. That is why it matters. Our food supply is at risk.

When you look at the pictures, for me it raises a moral issue as well. How can we, in good conscience, not care about the living conditions our consumer frenzy for cheap products helps create for these people. What about their rights? Do they have none? Would we like to trade places with them? I certainly don’t. Why is it OK to encourage commerce without requiring some type of worker and environmental protection?