Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The honest Japanese
The Japanese are the least likely to say that they are willing to make great personal sacrifices to arrest anthropogenic global warming:
Japan may be at the cutting edge of green technologies, but its capital has the least environmentally conscious residents of eight of the world's richest cities, a poll showed.
More than four in 10 Tokyo residents -- 41.6 percent -- said they "don't want to sacrifice a convenient lifestyle to prevent global warming," according to the poll results published recently by Japanese advertising agency Hakuhodo.
The percentage was the highest among the residents of Tokyo, New York, Paris, London, Milan, Moscow, Toronto and Frankfurt, and well above the average of 29.7 percent, according to the survey of 2,600 people.
In light of the obvious unwillingness of the residents of these other cities actually to cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 80% (the recommended reduction among the politically correct), I'd say this poll simply reveals the Japanese as the most honest people among those surveyed. Or the smartest. It is difficult to know which.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue May 20, 11:50:00 AM:
By , at
Tue May 20, 01:35:00 PM:
I love this poll. What a shocker it is for some Americans to discover their quasi-fascist grass-roots movement is not shared by all peoples of the world. I've often suspected people think the Japanese are Green simply because of the Kyoto Protocol, when in fact the country burns 80% of its trash.
By 
Donna B., at
Tue May 20, 03:27:00 PM:
I don't feel threatened by global warming, but I do feel threatened by those who do feel threatened by global warming.
I should have waited until after 5pm so I could have the excuse of booze for that sentence up there.
By , at
Tue May 20, 05:43:00 PM:
It's not the threats that you know about that worry you, it's the nature of the unknown threats that you don't know the scope of that worry you.
Some years ago, the city in which I work, Columbus,Ohio, built a trash-burning power plant for some-$250 million dollars, to solve both the trash disposal problem and to bring municipally owned kilowatts on line.
Well, there were measurable amounts of dioxins in the stack gases, and a cancer cluster study a few miles downwind of the plant that scared the general populous. Our then esteemed Senator, John Glenn, pilloried the city regarding this plant and its alleged side-effects. So the plant shut down, and has now been scrapped. However, the city will be paying for that plant for some years yet.
Go figure.
And there is not Calvinist philosphical history in Japanese culture, which may explain the lack of guilt in being honest about their lives.
-David
By Purple Avenger, at
Tue May 20, 09:17:00 PM:
So the plant shut down, and has now been scrapped.
Did the cancer cluster subside after that? If not, then someone has some splaining to do to the taxpayers.
By , at
Wed May 21, 03:03:00 PM:
And while kids text books are showing kids that CHINA is the best example for america to follow becuase they ride bicycles and use foot pumps CHINA IS THE #1 POLUTER IN THE WORLD YES YES ITS THE DRAGON THE #1 POLUTER
