by Barbara Minton
(Health Secrets) At first it seemed like a great idea: Flood the first world countries with cheap goods from China and everyone could raise their standard of living, at least if you measure your standard of living by the tonnage of your possessions. But apparently something has gone wrong with the thesis, and now China’s primary export is not cheap electronics or tissue thin sweaters – it’s pollution. In the last couple of weeks, two major news sources have highlighted what may turn out to be the death knell of consumerism.
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Earlier this month Russia Today drew attention to a new study published by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that concluded China is exporting pollution to California, contributing to extra smog in the Los Angles area. According to the study which used statistics from 2006, one fifth or 20 percent of China’s total pollution has been caused by the production of goods for export to American markets and the consumers that prowl them.
Wind blows this pollution across the Pacific in about six days, and results in an increase of 12 to 24 percent of daily chemical concentrations.
While the U.S., Japan and Europe boast of having lowered their carbon emissions significantly in recent years, the NAS scientists are arguing that they really have not lowered it, but instead have shifted it to China, which is why overall air pollution levels have stayed consistently high there since the year 2000.
“Outsourcing production to China does not always relieve consumers in the U.S. or for that matter many countries in the northern hemisphere from the environmental impact of air pollution,” they claim. So while consumers around the globe continue to received the benefits of cheap exports, the unintended consequences are considerable.