While manufacturers in America fall under the stringent auspices of the EPA, with some companies abiding better than others, as a whole, when compared to the remainder of the world, we do a fairly decent job at keeping things under control, and at minimizing environmental risks. While our endeavors, in most cases, may reflect well on us as a responsible society of green thinkers, we are also the largest nation of import buyers, with the majority of what we purchase being manufactured in a country with virtually no environmental standards at all, China. And though China and the US are mega-miles apart in distance, we share commonality with the same environment.
China is unquestionably the greatest global contributor in terms of human-made air pollution, and the largest exporter of product. It has been reported that between 1/5 and 1/3 of the pollution they produce comes from the manufacturing of goods earmarked for export, with roughly 21% of those harmful emissions devoted to the manufacturing of goods bound for the USA, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
With many American business’s taking advantage of lower wages by shipping their manufacturing overseas, a vast amount of factories on the East Coast of the US have folded, and now sit vacant. While as a trade-off this has vastly improved air cleanliness in that region of the country, it has worsened conditions of the West Coast. Pacific winds carry Chinas pollution across the ocean, straight into the awaiting arms of America. It’s the price we pay for our obsession with cheap goods. 11% of all airborne soot, and 24% of sulfate concentrations landing in L.A., were made in China.
Citizens, especially in major Chinese industrial cities, have begun to wear surgical masks as an everyday part of their apparel, yet the Chinese government continues turning a blind eye as manufacturing practices remain unregulated, with no plans in sight of changing their status-quo.
Until such time as the US enacts stricter government regulations concerning American company’s offshoring their manufacturing to China, what can we as citizens of planet earth do in the interim?
First and foremost, and since we can’t change how the Chinese government operates, get in the habit of checking labels. From an environmental standpoint, products don’t necessarily need to be manufactured in the US, just not China. Many other countries have jumped on the green bandwagon, including most of South America, and of course Canada who has always been on the wagon. Every cent a person spends on an item not manufactured in China, means less business for them, and better air quality for us.
