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Milk scandal resurfaces in China

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  1. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    I dont agree with your statements:

    1.) Clean industry that is available now is still not in use by Western countries, so why should developing nations bear the brunt of the overall costs of retooling and revamping their factories when they have not achieved ROI on these factories, some of which are less than 10 years old?
    You need only look at Europe to see how quickly they are transitioning to clean energy and industrial processes. As a matter of fact, their biggest challenge is the competition they will be facing from similar such industries in the USA, Korea and Japan.

    If various provincial gummints in China could move away, if not shut down factories in high-polluting industries in Guangdong and the areas surrounding Beijing prior to the Olympic Games, they can force it upon the factories now, for the sake of their own environmental future.

    One of our suppliers informed us of an increase in prices due to a gummint-imposed requirement to upgrade their plant and machinery. It wasn't the equipment cost itself, but the cost of the down-time on their production line which they were passing on. The gummint subsidised some of the capital expenditure, but I don't know how much of it. This should however tell you that your little local industries in China are indeed not bearing the brunt of the costs. Some, if not most, of these costs are being passed along the supply chain right down to the final consumer.

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    I dont agree with your statements:

    2.) The two world wars did not cripple the economy, in fact if you are to look at historic trends, the post war economic booms more than superceded the overall costs of the wars. Its what Bush tried to do in Iraq, what he tried to do in Afghanistan.

    In the past, wars spurred economies and greater industrial output, hence greater post economic booms. Has everyone forgotten about War Bonds?
    You would have a hard time trying to get that past our European friends. Germany, among the defeated powers, is probably the best example, looking back at the 1920s period of hyperinflation and then the post WWII destruction of much of Germany's industrial infrastructure. Fast forward to today, you don't need me to spell it out to you. More locations like the Der Wissenschafts und Technologiepark Berlin Adlershof are coming up not only in Germany but elsewhere around Europe. Norway is a champion of clean energy. They are not alone.

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    I dont agree with your statements:

    3.) The West can and should make the push for greater cleaner technologies, green power, and renewable resources. The West is aleady a super power, while countries like China and India are developing countries. They are still learning and still growing, until they are a true modern super power like the West, they will not care.
    I don't buy this. The West IS making a push for all of the above. That is what keeps companies like Welcome to Suntech Power busy, stuffing hundreds of teus of solar modules everyday for shipment to Europe and North America. What is it going to take for the Chinese gummint to use tax money coming from this industry to invest in capital for their own energy requirements? They're GETTING the money from Europe and North America. Where's the frikkin' problem?!!
    Last edited by Dreadnought; 09-02-2010 at 02:42 PM.

  2. #22

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    You want to try reading what others post before you get a rat up your arse and go off on one HKF. Or try Xanax.


  3. #23

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    Watch it, LT. He's got medals!


  4. #24

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    Not for reading comprehension he hasn't.


  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    Clean energy is a pipe dream. There has to be an environmental cost somewhere, doesnt matter if its the prduction of the silicone panels for solar or the electrolysis of water for Hydrogen. Someone, somewhere, has to bear the brunt of the cost of manufacturing.

    The only true clean power would be cold fusion, and we are far from achieving that. We are only begining to take baby steps in particle/linear acceleration, at best we are only grasping at straws.
    You're right. I think I'll go inform the Norwegians now that the EUR 30 billion they're proposing to expend on harvesting wind, solar and hydro energy would be better spent on providing me with a free life-time supply of whiskey.

  6. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    You need to learn how to read.

    Testing for melamine in milk is not a standard anywhere in the world, it is now thanks to the whole scandal but it wasnt in the past.

    Most countries do not have the stringent quality checks for dairy milk as the West does. The testing of milk is one of the most stringent in the world in the states, but even then things fall between the cracks. Milk falls under the control of the FDA, USDA, and the milk bottler.

    In the West dairy farmerss try to cheat the dairy companies with the use of hormones, antibiotics, to boost and increase milk yields and the companies that bottle the milk test each incoming batch for these products. Generally, those products are given to cows, and the milk has to be disposed of for weeks until the antibiotics are out of the system of the bovine. Some farmers in a bid to increase profit, mix the contaminted milk with the good milk hoping that it will pass the quality checks.

    If traces are detected, the milk is rejected and the dairy farmer is billed for the cleanup since there are so many children allergic to the hormones and antibiotics.

    This system of checks and balances are in place due to the litigative society the west is.

    In countries where personal lawsuits are uncommon, its everything and anything goes.
    We seem to have said the same things.

    (1) The ignorant bottler excuse is no longer any good because of what happened earlier.
    (2) If the West can test for all that stuff, so can the whole developed world, regardless of number of lawyers

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    A simple $300 USD modification using water, a few pieces of tubing, a water pump, and a solenoid would reduce emissions and increase the fuel economy of most cars.

    Its not done due to pressure from oil companies and the car manufacturers reluctance to spend an additional $300, its more profitable to pass the problems onto the next generation...
    I am wearing my tinfoil hat.
    Please add relevant links so you can share this simple solution.

    Whilst I agree somewhat on your comments regarding hybid cars, I find pretty much everything else you have said in this thread wrong. Your lack of basic history and general knowledge quite disturbing. But anyone with is "Arbeit macht frei" after their name is obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

  8. #28

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    I thought this thread was closed!

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    Its the same old argument about green friendly hybrid cars and the enviromental toll/costs in achieving the hybrids. It was estimated that the materials and chemicals needed to produce a single hybrid car produced more pollution than what a standard gas burner could pollute in its useful lifespan.
    This myth was debunked years ago. The Pacific Institute's report "'Dust to Dust' Report Misleads the Media and Public with Bad Science" can be found here.

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    Everyone seems to think that the ultimate solution is green power and renewable resources, but you cannot get something for nothing. No one seems to take into consideration the pollution involved with producing a single silicon wafer. The energy toll with mining, refining, etching, etc is far greater than conventional means.
    Presumably this is weighed against the environmental costs/benefits of fossil-fuel generated electricity.

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    The only real way to attack the global warming problem would be to attack it from all fronts, everything from how we live, how and what we eat, and how we live our lives can we make signifigant changes to the world.
    Can't say I disagree.

    Quote Originally Posted by HongKongFoot:
    Its not done due to pressure from oil companie...
    Tell us something we don't know.

  9. #29

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    Children still ill from tainted milk

    Children still ill from tainted milk

    Children still ill from tainted milk

    23-02-2010


    Chinese researchers say more than one in ten children made ill by tainted milk were still suffering from kidney problems six months afterwards. At least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill two years ago after consuming milk watered down with the industrial chemical melamine. Researchers from Peking University say their findings show that the potential for long-term complications after exposure to melamine remains a serious concern.