after the big time hype and escalation of iraqi war by american media, i am nowadays skeptical of the stories churned out in the media.

although america is a great democracy, american media has lost its position and is increasingly in corporatist mode. the peak of it came during iraqi war wherein the american press failed to do its watchdog duty but instead became slave dog and bulldog in escalating the iraqi war.

but i sometimes give credence to select news stories coming out of the american media. one such was this weekend from newyork times titled "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes".

if you go to any store in america, upto 90% (or even more) products are made in china. (infact we can joke the product as from united states of china). nothing wrong with it. but if you look deeper, most of the products are on perennial bargain with already rock bottom prices. garments, toys, kitchen items, household items, bath items, construction materials, paints and what not - most of these are very low priced.

the reason for this low price is not china, but american consumers. consumers who don't care 'how come it is so cheap' are driving down prices by their cheap consumerism which in turn puts direct pressure on american manufacturer and chinese manufacturer to cut costs resulting in massive environmental and human damage to china.

on one angle, seldom do we realise that our low prices mean increased pollution in china. on the other angle, the 'development' in china is beyond control, so bad, that nearly 500 million people have no proper drinking water access, several tens of millions are hit directly by pollution in terms of breathing air and worse the official machinery in china has been virtually over run by these 'development' forces that nobody there has a clue on how to stop the environmental crisis.

adding fuel to fire, is the gas emissions from china wherein china is soon set to overtake america on greenhouse gas emissions.

we can step aside telling china's pollution is their internal problem. but we cannot step aside from the global warming crisis that china is fuelling due to our cheap consumerism.