Frederick Rowe
04-01-2007, 9:28 AM
I originally intended to post this as a response to the thread "Stuck with Chineeeeese Crap", but decided it merited a fresh thread. I've noticed an increasing number of posts regarding the quality Chinese plywood. Frankly, I've chalked it up to the creep in products produced in China at low cost marketed by big box stores to keep prices down. Not complicated, we've all talked about it, and most Americans vote with their wallet. If you want a gut check, walk through your house and see what would be left without the Made In China tag.
This morning my heart sank as I read the headline story of The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...033101287.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101287.html)
"MYITKYINA, Burma -- The Chinese logging boss set his sights on a thickly forested mountain just inside Burma, aiming to harvest one of the last natural stands of teak on Earth.He handed a rice sack stuffed with $8,000 worth of Chinese currency to two agents with connections in the Burmese borderlands, the men said in interviews. They used that stash to bribe everyone standing between the teak and China (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/china.html?nav=el). In came Chinese logging crews. Out went huge logs, over Chinese-built roads.
About 2,500 miles to the northeast, Chinese and Russian crews hacked into the virgin forests of the Russian Far East and Siberia, hauling away 250-year-old Korean pines in often-illegal deals, according to trading companies and environmentalists. In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Africa and in the forests of the Amazon, loggers working beyond the bounds of the law have sent a ceaseless flow of timber to China. Some of the largest swaths of natural forest left on the planet are being dismantled at an alarming pace to feed a global wood-processing industry centered in coastal China.
Mountains of logs, many of them harvested in excess of legal limits aimed at preserving forests, are streaming toward Chinese factories where workers churn out such products as furniture and floorboards. These wares are shipped from China to major retailers such as Ikea, Home Depot, Lowe's and many others. They land in homes and offices in the United States and Europe, bought by shoppers with little inkling of the wood's origins or the environmental costs of chopping it down."
Solutions exist. Like most things worthwhile, they will be difficult and will take time.
Read, think, and act.
This morning my heart sank as I read the headline story of The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...033101287.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101287.html)
"MYITKYINA, Burma -- The Chinese logging boss set his sights on a thickly forested mountain just inside Burma, aiming to harvest one of the last natural stands of teak on Earth.He handed a rice sack stuffed with $8,000 worth of Chinese currency to two agents with connections in the Burmese borderlands, the men said in interviews. They used that stash to bribe everyone standing between the teak and China (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/china.html?nav=el). In came Chinese logging crews. Out went huge logs, over Chinese-built roads.
About 2,500 miles to the northeast, Chinese and Russian crews hacked into the virgin forests of the Russian Far East and Siberia, hauling away 250-year-old Korean pines in often-illegal deals, according to trading companies and environmentalists. In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Africa and in the forests of the Amazon, loggers working beyond the bounds of the law have sent a ceaseless flow of timber to China. Some of the largest swaths of natural forest left on the planet are being dismantled at an alarming pace to feed a global wood-processing industry centered in coastal China.
Mountains of logs, many of them harvested in excess of legal limits aimed at preserving forests, are streaming toward Chinese factories where workers churn out such products as furniture and floorboards. These wares are shipped from China to major retailers such as Ikea, Home Depot, Lowe's and many others. They land in homes and offices in the United States and Europe, bought by shoppers with little inkling of the wood's origins or the environmental costs of chopping it down."
Solutions exist. Like most things worthwhile, they will be difficult and will take time.
Read, think, and act.