You're fairly right about China's population living in cities: this is where their explosive economic growth is coming from: farmers sending their kids to work lucrative jobs in factories, where they receive OTJ training. In India, about 3/5 of the population lives on farmland. Unfortunately, the roads are so poorly maintained that 40% of the harvest rots en route to market. And for some reason, India's not as forested as it could be. Part of that is the massive bureaucracy that they call a government (you think the Republican'ts and the Demoncrats can't agree on anything? India's gummint is comprised of 19 different, eternally bickering parties) inhibits actual action on things like that. China, by comparison, has a very nimble government: they want to plant massive numbers of trees, and it's getting done.
The irony about builders in the States clearing the land before building on it is that a. it's not hard to cut only the trees that get in the way of the actual house and leave the rest, b. it costs way more to go back and plant trees to replace the ones that got axed, and c. houses are more valuable when they have "old-growth" trees on the property. The Journal of Light Construction did an article on tree preservation in construction zones, and that was their very conclusion. I guess this guy doesn't read JLC.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 12:57 am (UTC)In India, about 3/5 of the population lives on farmland. Unfortunately, the roads are so poorly maintained that 40% of the harvest rots en route to market.
And for some reason, India's not as forested as it could be. Part of that is the massive bureaucracy that they call a government (you think the Republican'ts and the Demoncrats can't agree on anything? India's gummint is comprised of 19 different, eternally bickering parties) inhibits actual action on things like that. China, by comparison, has a very nimble government: they want to plant massive numbers of trees, and it's getting done.
The irony about builders in the States clearing the land before building on it is that a. it's not hard to cut only the trees that get in the way of the actual house and leave the rest, b. it costs way more to go back and plant trees to replace the ones that got axed, and c. houses are more valuable when they have "old-growth" trees on the property. The Journal of Light Construction did an article on tree preservation in construction zones, and that was their very conclusion. I guess this guy doesn't read JLC.