Great Wall of China - Smog

Great Wall of China - Smog, originally uploaded by ConanTheLibrarian.

I was reading information on the Greendex on National Geographic's Site that has China at #3 in the list of the greenest countries on our planet.

Of course, the United States is lowest on on the list.

Evil meat-eating, car-driving, big-housed US citizens that we are ... we are dead last on the green list. Destroying our planet we are. So, so sad.

I want to live a greener life, but this Greendex is an example of not being able to rely on science for a realistic discussion on how to do that. How could they possibly be considered an informed study without taking into account China's air quality leaves oh-so-much to be desired.

I've seen many, many images from all over China where the air quality is so bad the view ends a quarter mile out.

In contrast, the average view here where I live in the West of the USA is literally as far as the eye can see. A few hundred miles down I-80 from is a valley so wide and flat that the other side is hidden from view because the Earth curves. A few hundred miles in the other direction is Las Vegas, Nevada which is one of the most over-populated cities in our country. Vegas pretty much fills one of these big Nevadan valleys and guess what ... every single time I've been there over the last few years I could see the "entire" valley coming off the high ground and into Vegas. Here is an image of an average haze over the valley that Pyramid Lake fills a short drive from Reno.

Also, Americans are keeping cars too damn long! If we really threw everything away away without fixing it, maybe the Big Three wouldn't be so close to closing shop.

AND! The products I throw away without fixing are the cheap electronics mass-produced in CHINA that aren't built for longevity. For instance, I can't recall how many DVD players I've been through since I made the switch from VHS. I think it might be five DVD players in seven years (but I am not sure). This is a sore spot with me because last year I got a new DVD player for $150 and it is already malfunctioning. In contrast, the first VHS player my family bought was produced in the USA and lasted so long that they had invented DVDs by the time that sucker broke down.