Global warming?

[Undertoad]

I can't stop thinking about it. I went into Google Maps satellite view and looked at the Yangtze River at the location where one of the pictures is. When the resolution of the satellite imagery is good, you can see what's going on. It's anything goes.

You zoom in and massive sections here are bathed in smoke. The left part of this link is low resolution; it's only the high resolution bits that show what's going on.

To give you an idea of scale, here's the center of London at the same zoom.

You zoom in more and it becomes an industrial horror scene. Huge industrial canals help get the pollution to the main river. There are piles of different-colored resources being managed by huge cranes that run on rails.

There is no part of the river not coated in shipping barges, and you realize... aw crap, this is where all our shit is being made.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

and you realize... aw crap, this is where all our shit is being made.

If you go up to my son's Schwinn bike that we bought him two years ago and sniff the tires, they still smell like China. The offgassing from the cheap rubber has gotten better in those two years. It doesn't fill the entire basement any more, but you can still smell it if you get close enough.

The latest is drywall. Make sure you don't buy drywall made in China. They are putting the waste into the drywall and selling it to us.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

The latest is drywall. Make sure you don't buy drywall made in China. They are putting the waste into the drywall and selling it to us.

Because they discovered a market where business school graduates buy and resell only based upon price. Could not bother to learn what was in that drywall. Did not care about the product or the customer. Did exactly what business schools teach: the purpose of a company is profits.

Same problem exists in so many products. For example, the computer assembler is responsible for meeting American standards. Asian exporters discovered that many (if not a majority) of American computer assemblers and A+ Certified Computer techs do not even know how electricity works. So they dump power supplies into the market sometimes missing functions even required before 1970. The computer boots; so the technically naive computer assmebler declares it OK.

Then when a computer has problems, a naive consumer is told to spend $100 for a UPS to fix that $20 discount - missing functions inside that supply.

Political extremists, business school perverts, unscrupulous exporters - in every case they get away with it because so many Americans just blindly believe what they are told to believe - fail to learn or remember even science taught in school.

Some retailers are more responsible. However the food industry has quietly conceded they cannot guarantee the quality of their products. Food industry had no program to learn what is put inside their products. One major offender was Beechnut who even knew they were selling tainted baby food - and continued to do so because it increased profit margins.

You have stack of drywall in the warehouse awaiting shipment. How could you not know how bad it smelled? They knew enough to at least ask some simply and damning questions. Instead, they did exactly what is taught in business schools.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

There is no part of the river not coated in shipping barges, and you realize... aw crap, this is where all our shit is being made.

There's been tons of pictures on the net, and shows on TV, showing the pollution and it's effects on the people. Thank walmart.

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

There's been tons of pictures on the net, and shows on TV, showing the pollution and it's effects on the people. Thank walmart.

No, thank every politician since the 60's who voted to do business with a totalitarian government that only wants to spread their philosophy worldwide.