We have long followed the horrific record of China on the environment. The Chinese regime has continued to push for high production rates as the number of “cancer villages” and lethal pollution rises across the country. This record has made China the worse environmental violator in the world. Now, greed has combined with power to make for what could be one of the greatest single environmental losses with China expanding its destructive record to Latin America. Ecuador has announced a plan to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies. The loss of such pristine areas (and unique species within it) will cause incalculable damage to feed China’s insatiable demand for energy.
Indigenous groups and environmentalists have protested the deal with China Petrochemical and China National Offshore Oil. The seven indigenous groups who inhabit the land have objected that they have not consented to the sale. However, Ecuador’s secretary of hydrocarbons, Andrés Donoso Fabara, has attacked the tribes in opposing his surrender of large amounts of his nation to a foreign government with the worst environmental record in the world. I suppose that can be expected from someone called the “Secretary of Hydrocarbons.” Fabara insisted “These guys with a political agenda, they are not thinking about development or about fighting against poverty.” He reminded everyone that “We are entitled by law, if we wanted, to go in by force and do some activities even if they are against them.” In other words, the Chinese will have their way with Ecuador.
The disgraceful sale also reflected how China has used debt to pressure countries, including the United States. Ecuador owes China more than £4.6bn ($7bn) — more than a tenth of its GDP. China has loaned the country billions of dollars in exchange for oil shipments.
The cost will not just be felt by these tribes. The destruction of these rainforests will contribute to global warming and accelerate the loss of species. Those species will not only reduce diversity in this world but many likely hold medical and scientific breakthroughs. We have found key treatments for diseases and illnesses in such rare species. In other words, we are slitting our own throats in the loss of these areas. China’s aggressive effort to secure these areas reaffirms its opposition to basic environmental protections and its intent to expand its environmental damage around the world.
Source: Guardian
I am also opposed to drilling in the Amazon. However, a 10% debt to GDP ratio is not generally considered significant. I believe this ratio can get up to 60% before any economists raise an eyebrow. If this is the case, then we can conclude that China is not pressuring Ecuador via debt obligations, as you suggest, but rather the responsibility is all Ecuador’s — that is, unless we implicate all industrial nations, including the U.S. and China, for their incredibly irresponsible consumption of oil.
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I would imagine that doesnt happen much in the US today. Banks require environmental studies on properties to make sure they arent getting a pig in a poke.
And that is how it should work, opposing forces. Developer vs. banker. I will say you are right, that only a psychopath would sell polluted land to homeowners because a psychopath is disconnected from reality. The reality is that he could do that for one, maybe 2 developments but that would be it, word would get out and he would be out of business and subject to civil if not criminal charges for fraud.
A real capitalist thinks long term and looks out for his interests. Those interests are tied to the satisfaction of his customers who will then give referals and grow his business.
Will there be people who take advantage of other people, certainly and they are sociopaths but the crook is always on the run and can never settle down and is always looking over his shoulder. Bernie Madoff is a good case in point.
Why would a child selling lemonade use salt instead of sugar?
Yes, of course the upper atmosphere is going to deflect and re-radiate the energy of solar storms, that’s why we don’t burn to a cinder when they happen. There’s nothing new here, this is what the upper atmosphere (thermosphere) does. CO2 (and other greenhouse gases – GHG’s) in the lower atmosphere also re-radiates long wave infra red energy (LWIR) as backradiation coming up from the surface of the Earth as it dumps the shortwave solar energy absorbed returns as LWIR (heat) and makes its way to the top of the atmosphere.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/03/28/a-misinterpreted-claim-about-a-nasa-press-release-co2-solar-flares-and-the-thermosphere-is-making-the-rounds/
Yeah, because left up to their own devices, industry has never raped the environment. Say like destroying whole habitats by strip mining because it’s cheaper than conventional mining practices or dumping thousands of dead pigs into a river used as a water supply or burying toxic waste and selling the land to unsuspecting developers who consequently pass the toxic properties on to home owners who subsequently get sick and die along with their children and pets.
Capitalism rewards psychopathic behavior.
That is why it must be restrained.
Over at Principia Scientific International (PSI) greenhouse gas effect (GHE) critic, Alan Siddons is hailing the findings. Siddons and his colleagues have been winning support from hundreds of independent scientists for their GHE studies carried out over the last seven years. PSI has proved that the numbers fed into computer models by Hansen and others were based on a faulty interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics. PSI also recently uncovered long overlooked evidence from the American Meteorological Society (AMS) that shows it was widely known the GHE was discredited prior to 1951. [2]
http://principia-scientific.org/supportnews/latest-news/163-new-discovery-nasa-study-proves-carbon-dioxide-cools-atmosphere.html#.UVYwRz4bXF4.facebook
Now you know why they bought the Panama canal. you climate changers better get down there asap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine
Can a civilization commit suicide?