Unfortunately I find myself agreeing with the critics/cynics here on this one: people are contorting their brains to let China off the hook for what (if this study is to be believed) is a mostly Chinese problem. I don't think the point about China taking US recycling waste is relevant. They're being paid to take the waste and recycle it, not throw it in the ocean.
I don't think anyone would be doing the same if the Hudson River or the Port of Long Beach were the source of most of the plastic in the ocean.
China is also the world's #1 greenhouse gas emitter on a per GDP basis:
Sort by GDP per emissions and China is quite exceptional compared to other large economies and even among developing nations. China just clearly doesn't care at all about the environment, or if the leadership does care they're doing a really poor job of enforcing anything.
It's bizarre to me to hear Western liberals give a free pass to China with its massive and still growing CO2 emissions, internment camps for ethnic minorities, rivers of plastic, and dystopian total surveillance state. I suspect it comes from a knee jerk desire to take the opposite position from Trump and his supporters, but I personally find that to be kind of mindless. Pushing on China is one of the very very few things I agree with them about.
It's a measure of energy efficiency, so I think it's a fair measure. Note that China has a much higher emission rate than India, a nation at a similar place in their development. I bring up CO2 emissions simply to point out that the plastic problem isn't an isolated thing. China has major systemic environmental issues.
I agree that China is showing some signs of moving in a better direction environmentally, though they are still building coal plants. That's not my point. My point is that people seem to want to let them off the hook for where they are contributing to major global pollution problems and where they could (easily in this case!) do something about it. How hard would it be to clean up the Yangtze River for the world's second largest economy? It would be much easier than reducing CO2 emissions.
China is in the earlier phase of industrialization where the focus is on escaping poverty/building wealth over a clean environment.
All currently rich countries have gone through this phase, so it's hard to judge them too harshly for this, and they are showing signs of transitioning to the cleanup phase.
Use of disposable plastics is actually _accelerating_ as China develops. The most developed cities are the ones where the most plastics get thrown away.
In Shanghai, for instance, almost everything is delivered. Meals, products, groceries. Every single item is wrapped in layers and layers of disposable plastics. You buy a coconut, it’s wrapped in styrofoam, then wrapped in plastic. This all ends up in the ocean.
A billion plastic bags are thrown away every day in China. This has nothing to do with lack of development, and nothing to do with importing recyclables. It is lack of education, disregard for the environment, and poor government policy wrt recycling and waste reduction.
Or is it that China has much bigger environmental problems with the air itself being extremely toxic for example, that plastic bags are a luxury problem right now?
Comments
Unfortunately I find myself agreeing with the critics/cynics here on this one: people are contorting their brains to let China off the hook for what (if this study is to be believed) is a mostly Chinese problem. I don't think the point about China taking US recycling waste is relevant. They're being paid to take the waste and recycle it, not throw it in the ocean.
I don't think anyone would be doing the same if the Hudson River or the Port of Long Beach were the source of most of the plastic in the ocean.
China is also the world's #1 greenhouse gas emitter on a per GDP basis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ratio_of_...
Sort by GDP per emissions and China is quite exceptional compared to other large economies and even among developing nations. China just clearly doesn't care at all about the environment, or if the leadership does care they're doing a really poor job of enforcing anything.
It's bizarre to me to hear Western liberals give a free pass to China with its massive and still growing CO2 emissions, internment camps for ethnic minorities, rivers of plastic, and dystopian total surveillance state. I suspect it comes from a knee jerk desire to take the opposite position from Trump and his supporters, but I personally find that to be kind of mindless. Pushing on China is one of the very very few things I agree with them about.
GDP per emission is really a bad measure. It implies that the Earth's atmosphere is owned by the producers of goods.
Emission per capita is much more fair.
China has come a long long way. Fertility is much lower. They are investing heavily in renewables.
And they rarely travel by car or airplane.
It's a measure of energy efficiency, so I think it's a fair measure. Note that China has a much higher emission rate than India, a nation at a similar place in their development. I bring up CO2 emissions simply to point out that the plastic problem isn't an isolated thing. China has major systemic environmental issues.
I agree that China is showing some signs of moving in a better direction environmentally, though they are still building coal plants. That's not my point. My point is that people seem to want to let them off the hook for where they are contributing to major global pollution problems and where they could (easily in this case!) do something about it. How hard would it be to clean up the Yangtze River for the world's second largest economy? It would be much easier than reducing CO2 emissions.
China is in the earlier phase of industrialization where the focus is on escaping poverty/building wealth over a clean environment.
All currently rich countries have gone through this phase, so it's hard to judge them too harshly for this, and they are showing signs of transitioning to the cleanup phase.
Use of disposable plastics is actually _accelerating_ as China develops. The most developed cities are the ones where the most plastics get thrown away.
In Shanghai, for instance, almost everything is delivered. Meals, products, groceries. Every single item is wrapped in layers and layers of disposable plastics. You buy a coconut, it’s wrapped in styrofoam, then wrapped in plastic. This all ends up in the ocean.
A billion plastic bags are thrown away every day in China. This has nothing to do with lack of development, and nothing to do with importing recyclables. It is lack of education, disregard for the environment, and poor government policy wrt recycling and waste reduction.
Or is it that China has much bigger environmental problems with the air itself being extremely toxic for example, that plastic bags are a luxury problem right now?