A small story filtered through the web last week that caught me off guard. Some odd type of Chinese river dolphin was declared extinct. Not a plant, not a salamander, a dolphin. We’ve become used to the loss of species lately because of the changes we’ve created. This is now the new ‘normal’. A bird here, a frog there, a little bite-y insect I’d probably would have stepped on anyway..but not a mammal. Not a …dolphin!? These things are supposed to be just as smart as us! Didn’t they notice they were disappearing? Did they try to tell the Chinese to stop? Maybe they just got eaten every time they tried. The Chinese will eat almost anything.
Somehow, this seems a little more important than just a side note in Reuters. It not just the horror that we’re killing-off large species now, but the fact that it’s not really us that’s doing it.
It’s ‘them’.
Before you get your eco-friendly panties in a bind, let me explain. Yes, I’m referring to the Chinese. Yes, the west is more than just marginally responsible for the loss of life on earth. But, to the Chinese, this story was even less than side note, if reported at all. I think that’s really the point; not the ecological loss, but the willingness to tolerate these types of losses for economic gain.
Imagine some U.S. industry killing gulf-coast dolphins by chemical dumping, just to cheaply produce white dye for export. We’d see protests, lawyers, EPA boats with cops; all hell would break loose. China? Not so much. The west already knew of the Chinese people’s willingness to sacrifice (or, at least, show indifference to) their own livelihood for gain of the ‘people’, and the Chinese government’s zeal to ensure they did just that. This is as much a function of communist totalitarianism as it is a function of Chinese pride. I’m sure this differs from the countryside to the city people, but it’s still there. Why should we be at all surprised that they are willing to sacrifice their ecology, as well?
Their ‘entire’ ecology. Remember, they’re up to dolphins now.
Now with capitalistic consumerism, and the push to keep buying what they don’t actually need, the economic pace has quickened substantially. This is just more motivation to keep the steam-roller going. Imagine the economic power that could be wielded if you have no concerns beyond food production and economic development, with no (effective) environmental restraints. Now imagine the GDP of the U.S. feeding the environmental-compliance industries. From catalytic converters to washing machines, coal-electric plants to gold mines; there’s incredible amounts of money spent here. Imagine all that cash back in your pocket, and the spending you could do. That is Chinese government today.
Oddly, it reminds me of western defeat of the USSR. Remember them? Putin may be trying to re-create a little of the old red magic, but Russia is a pale remnant of what that superpower used to be. How did we break the bear? Not with firing guns and missiles, but with buying guns and missiles. The cold war was an economic war. We bankrupted them! It was a real economic conflict! Oddly, all they had to do to survive was just sit back and say, “I think we have enough guns, now”. But, they didn’t, and kept buying into our lie. By the time it was done, we’d created a deficit so large that it took until the Clinton era to get under control. But, we broke them- literally. How does China fit in? I can’t help but ask, how will China defeat us?
China is our most important friend, as they keep telling us. And through all the toys with lead paint, and killer dog food, we believe them. We don’t have many friends, anyway. And, I think people have missed the point of all the recent product recalls. Americans see it as uncaring Chinese exporters attacking the US. The problem is more fundamental. It’s actually uncaring or unknowledgeable Chinese manufacturers, period. You see, this stuff gets sold to Chinese, too, and there’s never been anyone to stop them. The Chinese people put up with it because that’s all there is.
What does this make them? One word, stronger. A fundamental disinterest in your people or environment might be characterized as stupid or short-sighted by westerners, but that’s because we keep buying and complaining. To them, whose history is much longer than anyone else on the planet, sacrifice is strength. With that level of intestinal fortitude, and the knowledge that they can succeed, will China decide to play an new type of economic cold-war with us?
They will out-produce us. The question is, will we be able to say “I think we have enough toys, now.”
Better learn Chinese.
