MADE IN CHINA

While being in China for several months, I've received several packages from friends and family with assorted goodies and letters. I laugh to myself when I look and see the usual 'MADE IN CHINA' stamped on the back of something my friends bought for me in the U.S. then sent to me in China. That phrase, 'MADE IN CHINA', has become second nature to us Americans. Its practically stamped on everything we buy, especially things made in bulk for cheap. But do we really know what it means for China? This fact, that China's presence is growing, was recently pointed out to me in an article I read from the New York Times. This past summer, China passed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States. In recent years China has passed Germany, France, Great Britain and now Japan proving that China, who was once an underdog, is growing faster than the rest of the world can keep up with. Experts even go as far to predict that China will pass the United States as the world's biggest economy as early as 2030.

China has roughly the same land mass as the United States but a fifth of the world's population and inadequate resources. Because the majority of China is underdeveloped it has a much lower standard of living also meaning a lot more room to grow. China is now the world's biggest exporter, passing Germany last year, but economists say that China is too dependent on exports and that it needs to consider greater domestic consumption.

Now all of these 1st prizes don't come without consequence. In 2006 China passed the United States to become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Analysts are on the fence about China's relationship with the green market. Some believe China is reluctant to join in the debate about climate change or how to slow the growth of greenhouse gases. But China also started a program to cut the energy from each unit of economic output by 20% by the end of 2010. (Not sure if they succeeded or not).

Whether or not China decides to fully jump on board going global with the green market, it still has an authoritarian government that can take decisive actions by stimulating the economy, building new projects and investing in specific industries. China is already the primary determiner of the price of virtually every major commodity.

I am happy to say that CWEF is helping to promote and educate China about green products and ways of living. I am currently researching biogas units to install in village households. (A full report is later to come) CWEF has always supported sustainable healthy ways of living that somehow China has looked past or chooses not to acknowledge. My recent trip to Beijing was an eye opening experience of how truly polluted China really is. While driving out to the Great Wall, we could not see the skyline or buildings relatively close by. The driver told us that today was a 'good' day. I feel sorry for the children growing up with all this smoke and pollution and can only hope my lungs will not be too effected the 18 months I am breathing in the China air.

For the full article, "China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy" from the New York Times click here.