Comments on: China Coal Industry Poster Boy http://donklephant.com/2007/11/14/china-coal-industry-poster-boy/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:56:10 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: bob in fla http://donklephant.com/2007/11/14/china-coal-industry-poster-boy/comment-page-1/#comment-383158 bob in fla Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:14:09 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2007/11/14/china-coal-industry-poster-boy/#comment-383158 OOPS! last sentence: Not in the real world, we can't. my bad . . . OOPS! last sentence:
Not in the real world, we can’t.

my bad . . .

]]> By: bob in fla http://donklephant.com/2007/11/14/china-coal-industry-poster-boy/comment-page-1/#comment-383157 bob in fla Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:11:56 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2007/11/14/china-coal-industry-poster-boy/#comment-383157 That is REALLY insane. Notice in the picture also that he obviously wore no mask or eye protection while working. (The lit cigarette is another subject entirely.) Thus, even if you survive years of working in China's coal mines, eventually you will die an early death from Black Lung Disease. China's work safety rules are none of our business. However, allowing them to host the Olympics next year takes that reasoning too far. If course, it is too late to change that decision, isn't it? Several weeks ago, Beijing shut down almost all motor traffic in the city for a day. The resulting drop in pollution still left levels obviously dangerous for athletes & spectators both. Considering that the Games will last for weeks & millions more will be in the city for them, how can the government hope to move all of them efficiently from one venue to another, produce the necessary added amount of electricity, & still reduce pollution to reasonably safe levels? Even if they shut down all the industry in the area starting a week early, I doubt they could meet that goal. Meanwhile, beyond the Olympics: As China, & India, keep adding more dirty coal power plants to their grids, one obvious outcome will be population reduction in their countries because life expectancy will drop like a rock. Of course, over time, the pollution cloud will reach far beyond their borders which will influence populations beyond their borders. While it is in our interests to convince Asia to clean up their act, such efforts will be worthless until we make real efforts to clean up our own act. Demanding them to do so without creating a good example to follow, first, will only fall on deaf ears. Why should they slow their economy to do this when we thus far have failed to do so ourselves? If we, with the world's richest economy, "can't afford it", how can we expect them to? After all the experience we have with this mindset, we can't expect "Do as I say, not as I do" to work. At least in the real world, we can. That is REALLY insane. Notice in the picture also that he obviously wore no mask or eye protection while working. (The lit cigarette is another subject entirely.) Thus, even if you survive years of working in China’s coal mines, eventually you will die an early death from Black Lung Disease. China’s work safety rules are none of our business. However, allowing them to host the Olympics next year takes that reasoning too far. If course, it is too late to change that decision, isn’t it?

Several weeks ago, Beijing shut down almost all motor traffic in the city for a day. The resulting drop in pollution still left levels obviously dangerous for athletes & spectators both. Considering that the Games will last for weeks & millions more will be in the city for them, how can the government hope to move all of them efficiently from one venue to another, produce the necessary added amount of electricity, & still reduce pollution to reasonably safe levels? Even if they shut down all the industry in the area starting a week early, I doubt they could meet that goal.

Meanwhile, beyond the Olympics: As China, & India, keep adding more dirty coal power plants to their grids, one obvious outcome will be population reduction in their countries because life expectancy will drop like a rock. Of course, over time, the pollution cloud will reach far beyond their borders which will influence populations beyond their borders.

While it is in our interests to convince Asia to clean up their act, such efforts will be worthless until we make real efforts to clean up our own act. Demanding them to do so without creating a good example to follow, first, will only fall on deaf ears. Why should they slow their economy to do this when we thus far have failed to do so ourselves? If we, with the world’s richest economy, “can’t afford it”, how can we expect them to?

After all the experience we have with this mindset, we can’t expect “Do as I say, not as I do” to work. At least in the real world, we can.

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