Once a upon a time, in lands far away, it was agreed by the people, that they would take all the recyclable waste material that could be collected and shipped to them from the developed lands, where we now live. You see, these lands far away, were not developed it was claimed, though they were all busily involved in making the clothes, shoes, televisions, computers, clothes washers, dish washers, motor cars, along with so many other things that the developed lands once made for themselves. The developed lands, because they no longer make most of the things that are required by their people, are called post-industrialized nations and those lands where all their stuff is now being made, are called emerging nations. Canada, Australia, The United States of America, Greater Britain (which includes England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales) along with most European Countries are all considered to be post- industrialized nations. So, this story is going to be about climate change, and what the post- industrialized lands are doing to try and fix the problem.
Yet, before we get too involved in that story, I would like to tell you about another similar story. Do you remember the story about the emperor and his new clothes? I shall outline the story, to jog your memory:
Long ago, there lived an emperor who loved beautiful new clothes. One day two swindlers came to the emperor’s town. They claimed to be weavers that were able to make the finest cloth in all the land. Not only were the colors and patterns beautiful, but the material had a magical property, for it would be invisible to anyone who was incompetent or stupid. The emperor thought it would be marvelous to have clothes made from such cloth, so he gave the weavers a great sum of money to begin weaving the cloth for his new clothes. “This will allow me to recognise which of my men are incompetent” the emperor thought. The swindlers soon set up their looms and pretended to weave, working late into the night each day. After a time, the emperor decided to send along his most trusted and honest old minister to see how the material for his new clothes was progressing. On entering the hall, where the swindlers were busily pretending to weave, the old minister was shocked. The looms were empty, for he could not see any cloth at all. “What should I do” he thought, “the cloth is invisible to me, but surely I am not stupid or incompetent?” He then thought it best, to tell the emperor the cloth was of the finest weave he had ever seen. The story goes on a little bit, with other details, but eventually the emperor wears his new clothes out in the town square. His people were all aware of the magical qualities of his new clothes, so each one cheered and exclaimed just how wonderful the emperor’s new clothes were. The children, however, immediately recognized the reality. “He is not wearing any clothes at all”.
Now, let’s get back to the story about climate change, with a chance for you children, yet again, to point out the foolishness of what the ‘big people’ are being encouraged to believe, in post-industrialized nations:
The people in those far away lands, that had agreed to take the discarded recyclable waste from the developed lands, have become aware over the past few years, that much of this collected waste stuff can not be recycled at all, so they are sending it back.
Now children, here is your first chance to spot something that the big people have missed entirely. You probably feel it would be silly to continue to have people taking up their time to sort paper, glass and especially plastic waste material that nobody knows what to do with? Well, it makes the big people feel good.
Look at the pictures below, then continue reading the story:
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia is sending 547 containers of waste back to wealthy nations after discovering they were contaminated with used plastic and hazardous materials, amid a growing backlash in Southeast Asia against being a dumping ground for the developed world’s trash. See Fig. 1
Officials in Britain and the West are scrambling to cope with growing piles of plastics like this one in China. Beijing banned the import of many recyclables on Jan.1.CreditFred Dufour/Agency France-Presse — Getty Images. Fig. 2
However, children, we had better take a closer look at what the big people are doing in order to feel good, by continuing to collect this un-recyclable sorted waste. They have large diesel trucks trundling along from home to home to pick up a few kilograms of this sorted un-recyclable material at each stop.
No, children, I realize I can’t fool you, for this does not make any sense at all, but, the big people are all about ‘feel good’ actions, most often done without due consideration to the reality.
They have been convinced to believe that they are doing this to save the planet. However, beyond the pollution caused by thousands of trucks on the road to pick up this waste, then ships to cart all this un-recyclable waste to those far off lands, then bring a lot of it home again, it was rather out of sight out of mind, which allowed such silliness to begin in the first place. You see children, recycling is generally far more expensive than the manufacture of the initial material that is to be recycled, unless used as a fill material in roads or under artificial turf, for example. In other words, the people in developed lands could simply not afford to pay our higher wages to attempt more suitable sorts of recycling, other than those fill uses noted. It was rather hoped, that those far away lands would just do something with this waste, though most people had no idea of just what that would be.
If you refer to the picture below, showing ladies sitting on old wooden chairs, while using a flame to heat an old-fashion sort of soldering iron to melt the wire connections and burn the circuit boards to salvage electronic chips, this is recycling in action.
These ladies are working in Guiyna, China, a former farming community that has become a recycling centre for technological waste.
Unfortunately, these ladies are being exposed to all sorts of airborne contaminants while they are working to salvage electronic parts. Not to mention the pollution caused by the toxic smoke wafted out of the building by the electric fans. This sort of thing would not be allowed in our developed lands, but the big people in developed lands simply have no idea, or perhaps do not care, that this sort of thing is the end result of what is happening to our discarded phones, computers and other electronic waste. The feel-good recycling exercise done in the developed lands, ends at the recycling station, for most people, as they have done their part in dropping off or setting out their electronic waste. Each person assumes, I know not what, if they think about the next step in the process at all, but all trust that they are doing their bit to save the planet.
The big people in developed lands take advantage of the fact that emerging nations need massive amounts of fuel to drive the machines that are used to make all those things that were once made in the post-industrialized developed lands, where we live. We ship as much coal and oil as we can to burn and provide the energy required for the manufacturing processes involved, so that the undeveloped lands can make most of the things that we need. At home in the developed lands, we limit our energy use by sealing up homes and encourage people to ride bicycles, buy electric cars, and generate electricity with solar panels that are all made in the undeveloped lands. In other words, the big people feel good about this. You children probably recognize the big picture, for we have simply exported most of our manufacturing pollution offshore to those emerging nations, and not only that, we have given them special permission to catch up. To emerge, if you like, and open new coal mines at the rate of one each month in India, for example. Big bad Donald Trump says that “China is gaming the system”. In other words, he does not recognize China as being an emerging nation, but rather thinks they have emerged, with their largest of any country carbon footprint, and most of the worlds manufacturing jobs. China, within the Paris Accord, is well involved in increasing coal burning throughout the world as outlined in the link below:
Well of course children, the notion that most developed lands can eventually become carbon neutral does not really pose an insurmountable problem, especially if we make sure that all manufacturing is done elsewhere, while we happily drive around in our electric cars made by those emerging nations. Street demonstrations in developed post-industrial lands will ensure that such happens. So, nothing to worry about, as eventually all pollution will be removed from within developed lands. You children, of course, when looking at the big picture, no doubt realize the foolishness involved in all of this.
For the big people, other parts of the commentary take a more elaborated scientific approach.