Icelandic Meteorologist Encourages Viewers To Boycott China

An Icelandic meteorologist is so concerned about climate change that he took the opportunity of the evening weather forecast to encourage viewers to stop buying products from China.

RÚV reports that meteorologist Einar Sveinbjörnsson took a portion of the evening’s weather forecasts to discuss climate change. He pointed out that global temperatures have been steadily rising, taking a more sharp increase over the last 50 years or so. This is attributable to human-caused climate change, and Einar said that the simplest measure Icelanders could take to fight climate change is to boycott Chinese products.

“The Chinese burn coal to manufacture products, and all products that are manufactured in China are therefore not environmentally sound,” he told viewers.

In fact, in a study published in Nature Climate Change, it was brought to light that “products made in China are associated with significantly higher carbon dioxide emissions than the same products made elsewhere.”

“The CO2 emissions related to China’s exports are large not just because they export a lot of stuff or because they specialize in energy-demanding industries, but because their manufacturing technologies are less advanced and they rely primarily on coal for energy,” said co-author Klaus Hubacek, a University of Maryland professor of geographical sciences.

Be that as it may, there is a free trade agreement between Iceland and China, and Chinese imports to the country have increased fivefold since 2011.