[sdiy] The Dreaded ROHS

[David G. Dixon]

> 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.

Yes, my point exactly.  If we were willing to pay others what their labor is
truly worth, they wouldn't pollute their countries in a race to provide us
with a bunch of cheap crap we neither need nor really want!
 
> 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.

Yes.  All good things, all of which contribute to a healthier, safer, and
CLEANER environment.
 
> 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.

One city bus in Santiago, Chile produces more airborne t in an hour than an
SUV would produce in its serviceable lifetime!  CO2 generation is not
pollution, it is exhalation.  Global warming is a scam, and the only people
who will benefit from carbon credits are the same filthy rich pricks who
created the recent worldwide economic turmoil, namely, investment bankers.

> 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.

Exactly.  And where better to educate ones children about the evils of
pollution than an affluent country where they are not otherwise concerned
with simply trying to survive.  Sick, starving people simply do not have any
concern to spare for the environment!

(OK, I'll shut up now!)