"Green" policies are destroying this country

No just because things are the where they are does not mean that things shouldn't change. We can put an embargo on Russian goods, we can do the same for Chinese goods especially where those goods are directly linked to slave labour and one of the single largest users of coal. Give them a financial reason to change. Divert manufacturing where it can be overseen and subject to strict manufacturing regulation.

The journal? Maybe but I don't tend to read the comments of the journal- there's really not much there you could take seriously imho.

I don't know why people blame China for anything really as they're the factory for rich countries like Ireland, we are the ones fueling it all. I don't see any politicians asking to stop doing business with them however as this would mean our way of life might be changed drastically without constant access to cheap consumables. Even you turf sniffers must realise this.

we certainly do outsource most of our carbon emissions to countries such as china, but winding down our global supply chains, i.e. reducing consumption, wont be easy, without causing serious economic collapses, including in countries such as ireland, as a large proportion of our economy is completely dependent on this consumption. we would probably also need to enact radical polices such as ubi, and/or to make sure all of our most critical sectors, such as our property markets, health care systems etc etc, are actually functioning, to make sure this doesnt happen, which could cause wide scale poverty if it did. this would be no easy task.......

We are so screwed

Yeah I realise we can apply blame to everyone. That's a given, though that's no reason why that the current situation should remain as it is because of those perceptions of "blame" or that there should be no criticism or solution to those problems

The situation with regard to China producing and other countries importing cheap Chinese goods manufactured using slave labour and with massively polluting energy sources can certainly change as. Such goods should be embargoed / stopped. That gives both China (and other countries) a real impetus to transition away from these methods of production and the pollution and other harm caused.

we must be extremely careful with implementing radial changes, our global economy is highly fragile and highly sensitive to such changes, yes we clearly need to get off fossil fuels asap, but implementing radical polices such as introducing embargos could very well tip the whole thing, and before we know it, we re all experiencing significant economic hardship/recessions etc etc. in order to enact such polices, we would first have to make sure all citizens are capable of being able to achieve their most critical of needs, property, health care, food, etc etc etc, but we currently are unable to do this, and by the looks of it, this requirement is actually rapidly deteriorating for many.....

...again, yes, we need to continuously work on these issues, but again, we must also make sure critical social protections are in place for all citizens, before truly implementing these actions, or we increase the likelihood of ultimate failure, we re effectively going in the wrong direction regarding citizens most critical of needs, this is already evident in countries such as Ireland

you could argue a lot of labour is slaved labour, but that would be more philosophical than real, in the case you re expressing, but theres still no easy solutions to these serious problems, our global supply chains are truly highly complex, to the point we dont truly understand them

China isn't the biggest emitter, only because other countries want to buy their stuff. It's also because of deliberate policies which have always treated the environment only as a resource to be used up to feed industrial growth. These go back to Maoist times, pre-opening up to the world economy.

People in a liberal democracy wouldn't accept more economic growth if it meant the air we breath in cities was killing us. and so on.

There are some signs that this attitude in China is slowly changing.

Just a word on this country planning strategy and planning law. Personally I was shocked to hear that you are NOT allowed by law to buy a land in countryside and build your own house. Rather you are FORCED yo live in housing estate on house build by some large scale developers with 5x5 garden. They have special name for this type of living conditions in Hong Kong (coffin homes). I call them 'cages'.

Forcing citizens to build in 'cluster' areas, with no permissions allowed to build dwelling on own land when its classified as 'rural' (essentially everything above 10 from larger cities) forces citizens to live in air and noise polluted environment dependant on mains water supply. Also planning law permit to build further away from the road eg mors then 10m, again contributing negatively to overall well being. It is basic human right to have clean air to breathe as well have own clean water supply, without noise pollution associated with 'cluster' living. Not only that but forced cluster living promotes anti social behavior, extinction of any biodiversity and wildlive or natural resources such as forests which has been proven to benefit overall health of people as well as sustainability of wildlife/biodiversity vs human density. Addin also argument of pro-pandemic characteristics of cluster living its essentially death thread to any society historically. Babylon alike barbaric totalitaryzm.

https://theconversation.com/how-tiny-living-spaces-affect-our-wellbeing-individually-and-societally-172182