At the beginning of the year the People’s Republic of China imposed an outright ban on thin-grade plastic bags. It was widely hailed as a sign of environmental progress in the traditional thinking China, however some were skeptical that the ban might simply be ignored as some other previous ones such as the ban on wooden chopsticks have been.

Seven months later having just come from mainland China I can tell you that the ban is mostly being ignored. On several occasions I was offered thin plastic bags at grocery stores without having requested them. However one place that has taken the ban to heart is Papa John’s. One customer who expressed displeasure at being forced to pay two-Renminbi for a cloth tote bag had this to say when asked to comment: ‘who gives a fuck about the environment?’

In neighbouring Hong Kong the local government has recently implemented a fifty cent surcharge for each plastic bag used in the territory. It seems to be working quite well with a lot of people now carrying their own bags to the store. However it’s only been implemented at large chain stores, meaning the local and smaller stores are continuing to offer plastic bags at the same pace as before.

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An article ran in Men’s Health this month entitled ‘The Truth About Bottled Water’, needless to say I was intrigued to read its sordid tales.

To summarize the contents of the article:

One. Basically bottled water is just tap water but without the government oversight. Twenty-two percent of the brands tested by the Natural Resources Defense Council contained chemical contaminants above state mandated health limits.

Two. If you store bottled water above room temperature for long periods of time chemicals from the plastic might seep into the container’s contents.

Three. Seventeen million barrels of oil are used annually in the production of water bottles. Eighty-six percent of these bottles will be thrown into the rubbish bin instead of being recycled and it’s there they will begin their half-millennia path to decomposition. Now if you can imagine that but multiplied by the worldwide annual consumption rate of 89 billion litres, it’s clear that we simply don’t have enough space in our landfills for all of these plastic containers.

So please everyone, do the earth a favour and drink from your taps occasionally. If that’s not an option due to rusty pipes or you’re living in a country without strong water health regulations, try reusing five-gallon water jugs.

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Many of you know the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, as one of the nation’s most progressive leaders on the environment. His crusades have seen him squaring off against everything from smoking to street congestion.

Earlier this year he strengthened the city’s anti-idling laws to restrict cars from idling for longer than three minutes, however the AP claims that Bloomberg routinely violates his own policies and leaves his official city SUVs idling for hours at a time. See whenever Bloomberg travels around the city he either uses his official SUVs or is trailed by said vehicles. So even when the mayor takes the subway in an attempt to seem in touch with the working man, he’s still trailed by the SUVs. And thanks to the AP’s stalking it would seem that whenever the mayor gives a speech or stops at an official function, his vehicles stay idling.

Hopefully after getting slammed by the AP all of this idling business will stop. I still like Bloomberg for all he’s done, however if hypocrisy were a crime he would be in jail along with the rest of us, and Al Gore.

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The U.S. Energy Secretary is currently in China in an attempt to encourage the nation to set 2050 emission standards. The US wants China and other developing nations to join the US and Europe in efforts to significantly decrease emissions by the mid-century mark. China for the most part has rejected these demands on grounds that developing countries started polluting first. Now while that sounds like an air-tight argument, keep in mind, this would also justify slavery and nuclear warfare.

Meanwhile this is all taking place as China seeks to develop the world’s largest green industry, albeit while using some market protectionism. China already lays claim to the world’s largest solar panel industry and is fast on Europe’s tail in the wind turbine market. However when China has authorized renewable energy projects in its own country they have sought to exclude European and American companies from the bidding, either outright or through various technicalities. This has elicited cries of protectionism from the west.

China has countered the claims saying their nation wouldn’t make such a large investment in renewable energies, which are more expensive than coal, if it didn’t also mean significantly building up their own local green industries.

To me it seems as if the west would like China to become a greener country, but if their companies can’t make any money off the transition their enthusiasm quickly dissipates. Personally I’m ok with market protectionism if that’s what China needs to man up and start taking responsibility for its own emissions.

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