And in the middle of all of this...
China Trade Surplus Rises to $50 Billion
news.yahoo.com
Exports surged 32 percent in the first seven months of the year, compared with the same period a year earlier, to $407.94 billion (329 billion euros), Xinhua said. Imports rose by a much more modest 13.8 percent to $357.96 billion (288.7 billion euros) — implying an aggregate trade surplus of $50 billion.
All this means to me is more people buying more plastic crap
than every before! And China needing more oil to run their
factories and to produce plastic to make even more plastic crap.
And more ships needing fuel to glide across the ocean to
unload plastic crap in America. And more trains and trucks
burning more fuel to haul plastic crap to more stores burning
fuel to run their air-conditioning in summer and their furnaces
in winter.
and on and on and on.
If people would just *stop* and think before they bought
things -- and think, "Where did this come from" and try
to either do without or "buy local" (produced locally), that would go one
helluva long way towards cutting back on fuel, pollution,
and resource depletion. Instead, everyone measures *economic
health*, NOT in terms of "savings" (both currency saved for
the future, and in savings of resources for future generations,
and on wear and tear on the environment), but instead, by
how much plastic and other crap is being circulated through
the system, ultimately making its way to landfill sites,
and by how much of the crap is bought *with* plastic.
the whole thing makes me sick... truly.... it does.
Gotta wonder what people are thinking.
Is this what people want?
Burn, baby, burn.
~croc |
