[sdiy] The Dreaded ROHS

[Jason Proctor]

as we've seen here in the US, affluence is no cure for pollution. 
until China overtook very recently, the US was the world's largest 
polluter. it would be far far ahead, if it were not for the fact that 
virtually all US manufacturing and a growing chunk of US services are 
outsourced to cheap labour sources overseas.

btw there are lots of reasons why people in rich countries don't have 
7 or 8 kids - availability of birth control, life expectancy, lack of 
requirement that kids support the family once of working age, cost of 
education, cost in general.

the problem is that once you make everyone rich, everyone wants their 
status symbols - a super-SUV, large houses, appliances, travel - 
which far outstrip their needs and which pollute either during 
manufacture or use.

the real solution to pollution (eeh, that rhymes, maybe i'll use it) 
is to educate our kids. then maybe they'll punt on the corporate 
oligarchy we call a government and vote in someone with a clue. with 
education budgets the first to get slashed even at the best of times, 
that's not going to be anytime soon.


>Not to add to the rant, but...
>
>As anyone who has ever visited a third-world or eastern bloc country will
>attest, there is only one sure-fire cure for pollution:
>
>Affluence.
>
>The worst polluting countries are those which are desperately trying
>(through heavy industry) to convert soft currency (rupees, rubles, etc) into
>hard currency (US dollars, British pounds, Japanese yen, etc).
>
>Affluence is also a pretty good antidote to over-population.  How many
>people do you know in your affluent countries with 8 children?  And yet,
>think of sub-Saharan Africa, where many children (all starving) is the norm.
>Or, think of your own ancestors.  You probably don't have to look too far
>back to find someone in your ancestry who had 7 or 8 siblings.
>
>The key to a sparkling clean planet is to make everybody rich, and then
>allow them not to work for a living.
>
>
>David G. Dixon
>Professor
>Department of Materials Engineering
>University of British Columbia
>309-6350 Stores Road
>Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4
>Canada
>
>Tel 1-604-822-3679
>Fax 1-604-822-3619
>
>"PERFECTA FINGAMUS SERVIAT NATURA"
>
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>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-
>>  bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Bob Weigel
>>  Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 1:56 PM
>>  To: simon.oo.o at xs4all.nl
>>  Cc: Synth DIY
>>  Subject: Re: [sdiy] The Dreaded ROHS
>>
>>  Simon Brouwer wrote:
>>
>>  > Bob Weigel schreef:
>>  >
>>  >> For example I recently calculated that if 1 billion people of the
>>  >> world drove some log truck that intakes .5 cf per rev (350 does .1 cf
>>  >> per rev) of let's say..utterly polluted useless air (which isn't the
>>  >> case..but..just say to get a concept) out the other side... and they
>>  >> all drove them 10,000 miles per year... the total impact on the
>>  >> atmosphere would be on the order of  1.7ppm
>>  >
>>  > And you think that a yearly increase of that much CO2 in the
>>  > atmosphere will not have a large effect on global temperatures in the
>>  > long run?
>>  >
>>  > 1.7 ppm may *sound* negligible but that doesn't mean that it *is*.
>>  >
>>
>>  Well the thing is we have an earth that is full of processes of
>>  combustion.  The little ones people do in vehicles pale in comparison to
>>  the ones nature does beneath the surface all the time.  And of course
>>  whenever a volcano errupts we see a mass display of this that of course
>>  overshadows a billion little tailpipes even.  Average surface area of
>>  exhaust of .15 ft radius even is 70million square foot of exhaust pipe
>  > ;-).  Which would be a mile and a half x mile and a half hole putting
>>  away.  The vent size of a typical volcano is..quite  a bit smaller but
>>  when they errupt it's like an a bomb going off in contrast.  And they
>>  can continue to spew for quite some time... there are something like 65
>>  'active' volcanoes at the moment each of which during an erruption and
>>  in the aftermath will of course make man's contribution to the picture
>>  look quite insignificant.  NOT to mention these aren't distributed and
>>  nature has to reconcile the damage in a much more concentrated area
>>  which isnt' good at all :-)
>>
>>  Anyway we're ranging wildly from the topic but I'm just saying..nature
>>  is pretty durable because of the broad bandwidth of things it entails.
>>  If we don't burn the oil...what the heck do people think happens when a
>>  volcanoe errupts through it? :-)
>>
>>  If we don't build houses out of the trees, what do people think happens
>>  when a forrest fire takes it all out?
>>
>>  There are some areas where people try to *strain out gnats* basically
>>  I'm just saying and in the end it looks very foolish indeed.  And the
>>  ROHS thing has been one of those if there ever was one.  People wonder
>>  why economies are failing etc. Yet they keep thinking of more and more
>>  trivial things to plague people's efficiency with.   This human control
>>  is webbing it's way into all aspects of life.  The food we eat even.
>>  But anyway... that's all I'll say.  I don't want to plague people
>>  because it really is pretty off topic in a way except... hey if the
>>  world government players destroy people's productivity I don't think
>>  we'll be talking about sdiy stuff much.   People will just be trying to
>>  survive.
>>
>>   -Bob
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