Comments on The Green Phone Booth: Climate Change: Life's little convenience charge

This is very clever - maybe we should impose an &q...

2009-12-13T12:13:32.161-08:00

This is very clever - maybe we should impose an "inconvenience" tax on consumption!

YES!! YES!! YES!!! You said everything I want to...

2009-10-15T10:02:50.678-07:00

YES!! YES!! YES!!! You said everything I want to say about Climate Change but have never been able to find the words. So often, I forget why I'm living the way I do. It's so darn enjoyable that I forget what the trigger was - Climate Change. As you mention, though, individual action alone is not enough. We need to act collaboratively. Thank you for an inspiring, hopeful post about the most frightening topic around.

Kellie, very thoughtful post and I generally agree...

2009-10-15T09:53:52.062-07:00

Kellie, very thoughtful post and I generally agree with you. I do think, though, it's important to think long and hard about what "relief" it is for that young girl in China.

Is relief losing her job at the bag factory and becoming a burden on her parents? Is relief for that girl an early marriage with children she can't afford to put through school?

I agree that labor conditions are often awful and that wages are abysmally low, but for many, the options are 1) bad job with low wages or 2) no job. Unsurprisingly, many people prefer option one to option two.

So I think we need to move away from this idea that we need to avoid products produced in China and instead fight for products to be produced ETHICALLY in China. So that that young girl still has a job, and is paid fairly to boot.

Thank you Kelli, for reminding me of the corrolati...

2009-10-15T07:38:15.253-07:00

Thank you Kelli, for reminding me of the corrolation between climate change and simplified living. As I take steps in my own family life to simplify what we buy, what we eat, and what we do with our time, it's good to remember that things I deem as 'convenient' actually carry a steep price (often literally).

I've written for Blog Action Day today as well at my site, http://nevertruetales.blogspot.com.

@Eco Yogini - Haven't seen it, but I'll de...

2009-10-15T06:01:41.195-07:00

@Eco Yogini - Haven't seen it, but I'll definitely suggest it to our library! It looks good!

@ruiaf - By "young" I don't necessar...

2009-10-15T05:56:52.685-07:00

@ruiaf - By "young" I don't necessarily mean "child labor". Although, unfortunately there are still cases of child labor in many places in the world. In general though, my point is that there are people in a multitude of other countries who are sentenced to a life of working in factories to provide cheap crap for us in the United States because we demand that our big box stores sell things for ridiculously low prices. I wouldn't call it xenophobe, rather compassion.

fantastic post. I think that the idea of trusting ...

2009-10-15T04:17:41.254-07:00

fantastic post.
I think that the idea of trusting huge corporations with sketchy histories and practices is tough (umm, SIGG drama anyone?).
I for one try to avoid purchasing what I can from developing countries unless it's fair trade fair wages certified. This is the cynic in me that is distrustful of government regulatory bodies, corporations and the follow through.

I'd rather support locally made products (and handmade!) :)

Have you seen 'Hand Made Nation' yet? It's a fantastic doc.

I agree with everything you say here except for: ...

2009-10-15T02:45:46.830-07:00

I agree with everything you say here except for:

"I relieve a young girl in China from having to make a bag for me for an unfair wage"

I don't even have words to describe this sentence. It's xenophobe.

You should read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

Do you see child labor mentioned there? Child labor is forbidden in China. There may be some illegal child work but not to a bigger extent than in other developing countries like Russia, Brazil, etc.

I totally support not buying things from the other side of the world, but this is not a justification at all.