12/07: Did I Help Destroy a Rain Forest Today?
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
This afternoon my wife and I bought a small shelving unit at a business supply big box store. Is is solid wood.
On the way home I meditated on the fact it was "Made in Thailand."
What are the odds the shelving unit is a product of sustainable logging?
Earlier this year my wife and I shopped for a bedroom set, our first, as a 30th wedding anniversary present to ourselves.
Most of what we saw were made in China. Given China's environmental record, I strongly suspect that buying Made in China furniture is environmentally irresponsible. Perhaps that is why manufacturers are pushing dark-colored pieces--the finish hides tropical mystery wood.
We bought a Made in the USA set that is mostly constructed wood, though if our budget had been larger, we would have gone for Made in America solid hardwood.
Free trade is trade without a conscience. Free trade gives advantage to foreign goods produced without the environmental and safety regulations that protect American workers, and our environment. Fair trade would be better.
On the way home I meditated on the fact it was "Made in Thailand."
What are the odds the shelving unit is a product of sustainable logging?
Earlier this year my wife and I shopped for a bedroom set, our first, as a 30th wedding anniversary present to ourselves.
Most of what we saw were made in China. Given China's environmental record, I strongly suspect that buying Made in China furniture is environmentally irresponsible. Perhaps that is why manufacturers are pushing dark-colored pieces--the finish hides tropical mystery wood.
We bought a Made in the USA set that is mostly constructed wood, though if our budget had been larger, we would have gone for Made in America solid hardwood.
Free trade is trade without a conscience. Free trade gives advantage to foreign goods produced without the environmental and safety regulations that protect American workers, and our environment. Fair trade would be better.
etlamatey wrote:
I suspect that you will not buy stuff if you think you are being screwed over; vice versa, a seller will not sell you if he is getting screwed over; thus any voluntary trade is mutually fair.
As far as China's environmental record goes, the Department of Energy's website indicates (<a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu...">link</a> )that China's per capita emissions are 4.58 metric tons compared to the United States' 19.78 metric tonnnes, so I assure you that the Chinese have ways to go before catching up with American levels of polluting behavior.
In any case, given the millions of acres of forestland and prairie denuded in America's westward growth, it would be immoral to point at the environmental consequence of growth in, say, China or Brazil.