[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=yipla]I will note for Hobie, that we should not forget the main reason China’s emissions are so high is that all of US manufacturing has been moved there. They make all our products for us. If we internalized that environmental cost, all our iphones and christmas presents would be a lot more expensive.
So, maybe instead of all Americans blaming China for emissions, we should all stop buying Chinese products and see where that gets us… The results would be painful, I assure you. The blame for Chinese emissions is largely on US consumers, making our per capita emissions THAT much higher than they already are. It would be fair for the US to take on more responsibility given this situation.[/quote]
Do we blame the drug dealer or the drug/consumer addict more harshly. In general, we go after dealers. People are helpless once they’re in the apple store. I heard some guy trying to buy an iPhone the other day that his cards were maxed out but he thought he could scrape together some cash. Sounded like a drug deal… if we really wanted to lower emissions, we’d have to get serious about our intense need to consume. My kids think it’s crazy that I’ve had the same smartphone FOR OVER TWO YEARS!!! Antique.[/quote]
people don’t realize more TOTAL energy is used in the USA is for housing than is associated w/ transportation
so FWIW I’d guess the environmental cost associated with producing consumer products for the USA isn’t as high as the CHINA embodied energy requirements for housing and utility operating costs because over there heating buildings is done w/ coal and the middle class population of china guesstimate being 300 million is about the total population of the the USA
so don’t we in the USA can still blame those darn people in china who aspire to a USA middle class life style
in any case it seems santa’s home (at the north pole) won’t need to use as much energy for heating because this year its much warmer than normal
BTW have you beat, I still don’t have a smartphone (I’m waiting for the release of an iPhone that will run one week “web surfing,” have 1Tb of memory, be water and shock proof ALL in the current 5s form factor)
