Without you (us), we could be living like this.
Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”
Without you (us), we could be living like this.
Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”
Funny how all the organizations still try to portray the US as the bad guys.Originally Posted by Spexvet
Yeah, the RNC should stop it!:p
I think I want to hurl.
Makes my messy room seem like a clean room at the Intel processing plant.
Those poor bast***ds...being exploited by greedy companies. Awful, simply awful. China is gaining economically because they're too lazy and greedy to do things the RIGHT way, which is the healthier, environmentally safer (albeit more expensive) way.
Thanks for posting this Spex...I've posted it on other forums I'm a member of.
Just say NO to "Made In China"!
Last edited by LilKim; 10-23-2009 at 09:21 PM.
But there's much more to consider:
LANGFANG, CHINA - At a gleaming new research center outside Beijing, about 250 engineers and researchers from the ENN Group are trying to figure out how to make energy use less damaging to the world's climate.
In a large greenhouse, hundreds of tubes hold strains of algae being tested for how much carbon dioxide they can suck from the air. Outside, half a dozen brands of solar panels are being matched for performance against the company's own. Next door, large blocks of earth, carved out of Inner Mongolia, have been trucked in to test for new methods of gasifying coal underground.
The private company is part of a growing drive by China to work out a way to check the rapid growth of its massive emissions of greenhouse gases. . . .
The [Chinese] government has set ambitious targets for renewable energy, which is supposed to account for 15 percent of the country's fuel mix by 2020, and for tree planting, to boost forest cover to 20 percent of China's land mass by the end of next year. China plans to quadruple its nuclear power; by the end of next year, it may have 18 nuclear energy plants under construction, half of the world's total under construction.In the United States, China's drive to rein in its carbon emissions has prompted some people to switch from worrying about "the China threat" to the global climate to worrying about the threat of China soon seizing the lead in clean-energy technology.
For the complete report from the Washington Post, see:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33457739...hington_post//
The issue is not so much about carbon/global warming, it's about making the environment toxic - a much more immediate problem.
Terrible, but we the civilized countries of the world (IE: corporate CEO'S) continue to send all of our money and orders to China because we can get it cheaper there and make better profits. AT WHAT COST TO THE CHINESE AND THE WORLD.
That doesn't matter to (unfortunately) most people. For them it's all about ME. "How does it affect MY pocketbook, MY family, MY town, MY county, MY state, MY country" - in that order. "Screw the world, if I can save a buck".
Do we not all carry frames, cases, etc. to resell to consumers that are made in China? If we did not could we fill the boards with the price points our customers demand? In my personal life I try very hard not to buy things made in China but the flip side is that I must sell the products to others.
Talk is cheap.
So are the products that everyone wants.
EPA say we can't manufacture here because the pollution is too bad. So let China do it, and then we'll buy it.
Fill your McMansions with cheap furniture, trinkets, and trash made in China. You ask, "Where else can I get it? China's the only place making it."
How about answering, "Nowhere"? I've seen people go shopping and spend money on things they didn't even know existed before they went into the store. 10 minutes later, they can't live without "it".
Talk is cheap...
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
From here.
Hopes fade for Chinese miners as death toll reaches 104
...
China has been trying to clean up its deadly mine industry, which claims more than 3,000 lives each year
Well, if you want to avoid using lens products made in China, polycarbonate lenses are made here in the US (at least by two manufacturing plants) and are (relative to other lens substrates) "green."
Pete
Gentex has a big polycarbonate plant in Dudley, Massachusetts. I have never heard of any EPA or OSHA issues connected to their operation. Apparently they can produce lenses here in the USA on a competitive basis with China despite paying the high taxes and wages and benefits prevalent in The Peoples Republic of Massachusetts.
Cap and tax will probably do in a lot of companies that have been hanging on.
I'd like to take a look at your frame boards. (And driveway).
Yep- Gentex is the manufacturer of poly in the US to which I referred (but, since they are Essilor-owned, and I am an Essilor employee, I didn't want to plug them). Its possible other manufacturers also manufacture poly in the US, I don't know.
There's also a Gentex plant in Pennsylvania- and, to my knowledge- there are no plans to shut down / export operations at either plant.
The process for manufacturing polycarbonate is really interesting (one of the plants used to be in Clearwater when I worked in Florida, so I conducted tours quite often). Because poly is a thermoplastic, the raw material arrives in poly "pellets" which are fed into a hopper, melted, and injection molded. Again, because poly is a thermoplastic, any waste or scrap product can be recycled (just remelt and recast) into other products.
All other ophthalmic substrates (except for glass) are thermoset materials (which arrive at the factory in liquid form- once cured they can never be remelted again). That's right, you cannot remelt a CR-39 or high index lens. They'll burn, but will never melt to a liquid again. This is also why poly has internal stress patterns (just like glass, which is also a thermoplastic)- its just a property of thermoplastics and creates no visible aberration to the eye.
Just one of the many reasons I like polycarbonate so much! ;)
All that said, China will eventually face some tough economic issues of their own. First, you can't continue to trash their local environment at their current rate. Second, as quality of life demands of the workers begin to increase, they will eventually have to pay living wages and benefits (which cost a lot of money). Finally- they need to invest a lot in infrastructure.
There's at least one other poly plant in the US. I've gotten lenses from a couple distributors that have the same lenses inside, i.e. same internal packaging, different brand name packages outside. And the foam internal wraparound says Made In USA. Unless that's a town in China.
DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
"There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Oracle? Sola bought them. Good quality for poly.There's at least one other poly plant in the US. I've gotten lenses from a couple distributors that have the same lenses inside, i.e. same internal packaging, different brand name packages outside. And the foam internal wraparound says Made In USA. Unless that's a town in China.
http://www.oraclelens.com/
What about Resolution by Optima? Pretty sure its made in the USA and good lens.
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