Thursday, June 21, 2007

Is it ethical to buy goods from China and India?

That's the question asked of Ethan Greenhart at Spiked.

When I linked to Greenpeace's response to the announcement that China is the largest CO2 emitter in the world:

"Responsibility for China's soaring emissions lies not just in Beijing but also in Washington, Brussels and Tokyo. All we've done is export a great slice of the West's carbon footprint to China, and today we see the result. Let us not forget that the average Chinese emits just 3.5 tonnes of CO2 per year, whereas Britons emit nearly 10 tonnes and North Americans 20 tonnes."

I ended the post by saying I didn't know what to think. I still don't but I've been kicking this idea around for the last day or so: Trade War! (or toga party!).
Stop the exports.

I can figure out a few of the effects, inflation in the U.S., depression in China, four standard-deviation events bankrupting the hedge funds (screw 'em), a race to the bottom in the rest of the world.

But think of all the CO2 we'd save!

When we see headlines like this:

The Earth today stands in imminent peril

I start to think "let's blow it up".
Plus it sure would throw a monkey wrench into Maurice Strong and George Soros' plan to destroy what's left of the U.S. auto industry by flooding this market with Chery's made with Chinese slave labor and built off stolen blueprints.

Toga Party!