China temporarily shuts down thousands of factories in pollution crackdown

Re:China temporarily shuts down thousands of factories in po... by dmoy on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @10:17PM (#15555862)

Yea I think we in the West are too quick to forget our rampant corruption and pollution directly after our industrial revolutions. It'll take China awhile to catch up in livability, but they'll get there once they get richer.

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Re:China temporarily shuts down thousands of factories in po... by Gustomaximus on Thursday October 26, 2017 @12:11AM (#15556282)

I really dislike this the west got to pollute while developing so other countries should be able to also mentality.

It's apple and oranges. People then didn't have technologies to choose like we do, didn't realise the impact of pollution, nor did things on the scale we are today.

Its cherry picking the bits the want for an economic advantage. If countries want to use the 'they polluted before' argument then they should go back to steam trains and gas lighting etc. Otherwise maybe the west will say look at what they did to get economic growth, now its our turn...

Sorry for the rant but I find this such a poor excuse. All countries should be held to better standards. We seem to forget a key component of capitalism is for the government to create a level playing field. And ability to pollute (or not) the enviroment should be a global tenant for all who engage in the open market.

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Re:China temporarily shuts down thousands of factories in po... by whatyoucantsay on Thursday October 26, 2017 @10:15AM (#15558985)

There weren't over three billion people living in the west during the time you speak of as there currently are in Asia. There aren't even that many people in the west now.

China, India, Indonesia, etc "catching up" is a great goal to work towards but not at the cost of ecosystem collapse and permanently wreaking the oceans.

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