Young Asians Come Clean About Not Feeling Green

This is interesting, but I don't think all the news is bad. Consciousness-raising is important, but so is brain-power. India and China are together graduating a million engineers a year, while the US is graduating only a small fraction of that. This creates a hope that, when the economic and environmental pressures get a little hotter, that brain-power will create efficiencies and technologies that will render the situation more manageable.

Of course, a strong mental attitude is important, but so is the ability to get your mind around the scope of the problem. This will further be helped by Asian brainpower because, regardless of new affluence, they are less insulated from environmental pressures than we Americans, who drive around in gigantic cars and live in gigantic houses, and seem to make an obsession of blocking the world out. Being efficient does not pose a mental threat to them, because their self-esteem is not based on abundance.

Rob, I really love your insight about their self-esteem not being attached to abundance. I guess the question I have is where their traditional mind-set comes up against Western values, and where that will take them.

When I spent a bit of time in China a couple of years ago my guide told a joke about how, traditionally, young females in China dreamt of things like an apartment, a toaster, and a child when they got married. Now it's a diamond ring, a car, and a giant house.

It was said with fun, and the teller was a relatively young chinese female, but the question remains how our values and their own will come together. Particularly as we continue, in many ways, not to set the ideal example and they certainly want what we have...

-kenny

If you have no trees around you no perspective on "relative depravation" is possible. These kids have no wilderness or broad green landscapes to frame their understandings as children in North American do, for example. So what's to miss or strive for?

Not really a surprise.

Even though a lot of Asian countries are still in the process of developing, you would think they could just care at least a little about the environment.

But nope. They don't. I've visited several Asian strip malls and outlets before, and it's rather dirty. Like you can't go across the parking garage without seeing 4X more litter than regular American strip malls. And I see a lot of Asians like to smoke stuff. Cigarettes or whatever. And a lot of their supermarkets are extremely dirty, and I don't see myself wanting to buy a thing. Their clean standards are rather low.

And I heard Asian children are super obedient to their parents, who are usually more stricter, and what their parents do, they do. Well, unless they're tired of old ways, and want to do what everybody else actually does.

That's what I at least observe from Asian-Americans.

When I first started to read this article I was going to comment because it sounded so stereotypical. Now, that I have read the complete article I have something different to say.

I was born and raised in Asia and moved to the United States to attend high school and college. Right now, I am studying abroad in Beijing for a year- I lived in a Chinese home stay the first semester and am planning to move into the dormitory the next semester. From what I see, Americans in suburbia are by far the most wasteful people I have seen. They think of nothing but what they will consume next weekend, they all need massive cars to look cool while getting from a to b. They waste electricity and water without thinking twice.

At least Beijing youth know not to waste electricity and water because of how they are brought up by their parents. Although Asians are known for eating a variety of meats they don't consume nearly as much as the average American teenage. In Asia, vegetables are a very important part of their diet. This is something else that youth learn from their parents. However, I would not go as far to say that Asian children are super obedient to their parents. They certainly learn to be more respectful towards their parents than American children but there are many Asian children whom rebel against what their parents might prefer for them. Obedience of Asians is a myth that Westerns used to justify making Asians work on their farms for lower wages than African American workers.

From what I know of Asia malls are springing up everywhere but its just not the same as in the United States where everyone can afford them. Only the rich go to the strip malls to purchase things. College students cannot afford the goods in the strip malls so they go to wholesale. Consumer culture is becoming more prevalent but as stated earlier I feel that it is much worse in the United States. Did the other persons whom commented know that China's population is concentrated in less than half of the land - the east side. The west side is almost barren and no one there practices crazy consumer culture. People talk about China as if it is all the same - I am telling you that it is not. Xinjiang province and Beijing are not the same.

The same is with supermarkets in Asia. There is a large difference between street stalls and a real supermarket. I have lived in places where the supermarkets are much cleaner than those in the United States. Location dictates how clean the supermarkets are.

What bothers me most is that people think that Asia is "developing" when what they really mean to say is that Asia has capital cities that look more like New York and Asian countries are learning English - becoming more like the United States. The same people turn around and say that Asia needs to clean up environmentally. It's like the kettle calling the pot black. We can trace a lot of the environmental problems of the United States to its industrial revolution but did the rest of the world insist that the United States was dirty and needed to be more environmentally friendly (immediately)? China is making its efforts towards cleaning up especially because of the upcoming Olympics they are working towards becoming more environmentally friendly.

I do not believe that the wanting of a diamond ring instead of a toaster has more to do with a change in government. During socialist rule everyone had the same things and were at the same standard of living. Now, we can see that there is a gap between the rich and the poor and a newly emerging middle class. The rich would want diamond rings now that it is so readily available but remember that many poor people cannot even think of owning such a thing.

I agree with Rob who says that there needs to be a change in the mindset of people in the world. What I would like to see in Asia is that each country have a recycling program. This gets people thinking about what products are made of. I would like to see less plastic supermarket bags, less throw-away chopsticks and plastic water bottles. I think that bringing your own canvas, cloth bag that you use over again to the supermarket is a good start. If people brought their own chopsticks to eat lunch in the cafeteria or to take out food this would help as well. I've noticed that in Beijing many people use their own water bottles or large water canteens to transport water instead of throw away bottles. I think that people in the United States are starting to do the same. Perhaps in the future there will be no need for bottled water.

Interesting thread has developed! Another thing I've witnessed from afar is how Japanese culture, since the recession set in, has gone its own way and invented its own new aesthetics and mores. In some ways, tradition has reasserted itself, but in some ways, Japanese have been adapting world culture to their own situation. Adaptation to local circumstances, not just parroting an international line, makes adaptation real and immanent, and that's important. I think it will be exciting to see Japanese craftsmanship applied to low-impact manufacturing, because they have a 2000 year tradition of that already!

And archaeologists are learning more and more about ancient China, about its higher-than-known level of industrialization and development, and the (as yet unkown) reasons for it's inability to create its own industrial revolution before the West. Perhaps the economic and social causes of that disturbance (drought? war? fuel shortage?) can be considered as possible threats to China's continued (sustainable) development. I don't know much of China, but I know there was a great loss of learing owing to Imperial libraries and historical records being destroyed. Never underestimate the importance of libraries!

I'd say that rather than view the East as less environmentally concious, this article, along with Kelly's excellent comments, give me a different view. This is simply another case of a culture, whose own habits were inherently more eco-friendly, being replacecd with Western culture (if we can call it cultured). So if the pursuit of commodity (what now passes as culture here) becomes the new paradigm, and they see us consuming and polluting with abandon, why would they value a way of life they have already left behind in their mind?

Much as the American way has become maligned throughout the world, we are still the benchmark to shoot for for an increasing number of the world's population. Until we set standards that value the planet as a biota to which we belong, the rest of the planet is likely to fall to our pitiful level. This will be the greatest challenge for the next presidency and one I (disturbingly) have not heard discussed yet. Who will be the green president?

China isn't the only country in Asia, and I would think this varies a lot by country. Products in Japan are horribly over packaged, but they have a high rate of recycling. Bhutan has a deeply ingrained environmental ethic. I'm sure the surveyors would get really different responses from a kid in Kuching than Kyoto or Bejing. Also, I'm pretty sure Japan isn't considered "third world." If this article is talking about China, the author should say China instead of generalizing it to all Asians.

Actually, the orginal article mentions 4-5 different nations where the study was done in asia. And that's what was interesting, China was the only one with a high level of enviro-concern among youth.

And Japan's first-world, but just happened to be part of the study because they were focusing on asians, not first vs. third world...

The first vs. third world part was my own musing...

-kenny

Not everyone can or should care about the environment as their number one concern. I am from Africa - now in the US - and worked across Africa. You have to prioritise what is important from what is needed to survive today to what is needed to ensure a better tomorrow. But first things first - make it through today. And it is the same in some places in Asia and Latin America. Yes, people have the 'luxury' to be environmentally more aware and active - in the big cities where people are generally better off. But not out in the more rural and poverty stricken areas.

This is where our work as activists AND businesses could play a major role. Do our part to secure the sustainable future for everyone - while others might be fighting other more important battles. See my blog for more detailed discussions.

http://henkc.livejournal.com/615.html

I think India and China seem dirtier and less environmentally friendly because they are both too densely populated in a small area. It all depends on population and space. Look at the Dome during the Katrina catastrophy...so many people were crammed in there, there was trash, debris, fluids, and feces everywhere. Thats what happens when too many people are in one place and they don't have the means to live the way they should. I'm sorry to say this, but Asia needs to get over starting new families for a while, they seriously need to stop thinking a bigger family will make them richer, because it doesn't work that way. Bigger things are always more costly, if third world Asia really wants to be like the West and Japan, they really need to slow their role in the mating department, and try only having nuclear families. Actually, I don't even think 3/4ths of China and India should even be allowed to have children without conditional permits, under more severe conditions if already in place. I don't mean that in a bad way, but they really need to start thinking about population control and education more. I know it's every individuals right to choose according to human rights, but still...I think they are delusional if they think they can have an economy that is similar to a western one and make it sustainable if they keep going at the pace they are now, and the governments need to act quicker and stricter on the matters before people of those countries make it harder for themselves.