BUSINESS
Use our resources to better understand the global “trading game.”

Photograph by Bobak, courtesy Wikimedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Discussion Ideas
- The new study profiled in the Nat Geo News article puts China’s suffocating air pollution in a new perspective. What is its “consumer-based way of looking at pollution” and how is it different from earlier models? Read through our activity “A Supply Chain” for some ideas. Does the activity consider consumer-based environmental factors?
- The new study evaluates the role of consumers in industrial air pollution. Consumers are the nations, businesses, and individuals that buy and create demand for products.
- Traditional models of air pollution have been “producer-based.” They have considered factors surrounding the manufacture and supply of products, not their distribution or markets.
- The activity does not consider any environmental factors. It considers supply chains mostly from a supply-side (producer-based) perspective.
- Read through our activity “Interdependence and You.” Adapt its essential questions to the consumer-based analysis of China’s air pollution.
- In what ways are American consumers connected to China?
- Consider products frequently made in China—clothes, electronics, appliances, etc.
- Why do American consumers seem to prioritize purchasing goods from China?
- Consider price and ease of purchase.
- Why can China afford to produce items less expensive than goods produced elsewhere?
- Consider environmental and labor standards (laws) in different countries or regions.
- In what ways are American consumers connected to China?
- The study in the Nat Geo News article encourages consumers to consider their own role in pollution. What are other “consumer-based” ways of looking at global trade? In other words, are there factors besides price, availability, and the environment that consumers might consider?
- Sure. Take a look at our Global Closet Calculator or Human Footprint interactives for ideas about factors to consider when making a purchase.
- Politics. Some consumers might consider the political situation in a product’s country of origin. Many manufacturing nations have well-documented legacies of major human-rights abuses, for example.
- Labor. Many manufacturing nations have well-documented labor abuses, such as child labor, forced labor, and unpaid labor.
- Local economic impact. Some consumers might also consider the far-reaching local or regional economic impact of a purchase. The New York Times recently published a gorgeous photo essay on the waning American textile industry—a victim of inexpensive imports—for instance.
- Sure. Take a look at our Global Closet Calculator or Human Footprint interactives for ideas about factors to consider when making a purchase.
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