is the world turning against america

[ChrisP]

According to a French guy at my brother's work, "We don't hate Americans. We just think you're stupid."

:yes::run:

 

[PureX]

There is also the issue of the mass pollution Canada inherits from the States. Ontario, and Quebec suffer greatly from the pollution runoff coming from the USA in the form of massive smog clouds, and polluted water sources such as the Great Lakes.

I have to differ with you on this. I've traveled on and around the Great Lakes on both the Canadian and the American shores, and I have to tell you that Canada is FAR worse than America is these days when it comes to pollution. Your paper and steel mills pump out massive amounts of pollution and your fishing industry has ignored and set quotas so high that they've fished themselves right out of business on most of the lakes.

It's true that America was a horrible pollutor of the Great Lakes region 40 years ago, but that has long since changed. And now it's the Canadians that are still pumping out the soot and chemicals into the air and water. I've seen it with my own eyes.

 

[Ophiuchus]

I believe you are in denial.

There is no possible way that Canada pollutes more than the USA, especially in the east where most of the American industrialization is placed.
Detroit and Chicago are massive polluters of the region along with hundreds of other citys and towns.

I agree that Canada has its part in it, but most of the pollution that is in Canada does come from the United States, the worlds largest polluter.

 

[Ophiuchus]

If the USA and Canada expect to live together in peace without these issues blowing out of proportion in the future, we must work together much more on things concering the Environment.

It's not going to cool down from here unless this cooperation begins soon.

 

[Flappycat]

According to a French guy at my brother's work, "We don't hate Americans. We just think you're stupid."

Americans don't eat any part of a frog, though.

 

[Smoke]

Americans don't eat any part of a frog, though.

You've never known any Americans who liked frog legs? Where have you been hiding? I've even seen them served in cafeterias.

 

[PureX]

I believe you are in denial.

There is no possible way that Canada pollutes more than the USA, especially in the east where most of the American industrialization is placed.
Detroit and Chicago are massive polluters of the region along with hundreds of other citys and towns.

I agree that Canada has its part in it, but most of the pollution that is in Canada does come from the United States, the worlds largest polluter.

I'm not in denial. The steel industry in the U.S. is mostly gone. And so are many of the paper mills. These industries along with agriculture are by far the largest contributors to pollution on the Great Lakes, and Canada still has many of it's steel and paper mills up and running. On Lake Superior, the sky over Thunder Bay and Sault St. Marie was blackened with pollution coming from industrial chimneys belonging to Canadian. Duluth, however was pretty clean. And there aren't any other major industrial centers on that lake. There are major American industrial centers on Lake Michigan at Chicago, Gary, and Milwaukee, but all of these centers were mostly steel-producers, and the steel plants are all shut down. In fact, I travelled on a Polish freighter that was bringing steel TO these cities in the U.S. from Amsterdam, because we no longer produce the steel, here, anymore. I admit that large American cities are still responsible for air pollution from cars, and there are far more cars in the U.S. than in Canada, but the major polluting factors over the last 20 years or so has not been the cars (as they have had to deal with emissions limits), but the steel and paper mills on the Great Lakes. And both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario still have major steel and paper centers running on the Canadian side, while the American mills are almost all shut down.

I travelled up the Detroit river and although there is a huge industrial center south of the city on the river, many of those factories are now closed, and the one's that remain have had to deal with some serious pollution restrictions over the last 30 years. Cleveland, too, is now an amazingly clean city - even the famous Cuyahoga River, that once caught fire because it was so polluted, is relatively clean these days, because the steel plants are all gone and because of environmental protection laws imposed in the last 30 years were strict. Same thing with the cities of Erie and Buffalo.

Yet on the Canadian side, the steel and paper mills in Nanticote, Port Colborne, Port Stanley, Hamilton, and Toronto are mostly all still active. If you stand on a boat in the middle of any of the four Great Lakes that are shared between Canada and the U.S., and scan to horizon for smoking industrial chimneys, you'll find that most of them are on the Canadian sides of the lakes, these days, and the few active industrial chimneys you see on the U.S. side are spewing out white smoke instead of black, because of pollution control laws.

I hate to say it, but I think it's you who is in denial. It was easy for Canadians to focus on the terrible pollution that the U.S. industrial cities were causing in the Great Lakes region over the last 50 years, and all the while ignore their own contribution to the problem. The thing is, that these days much of the American pollution has been cleaned up, both by a changing industrial focus and by stricter pollution control laws. Meanwhile the Canadians have done little about their own contribution to air and water pollution because they were so busy blaming it all on the Americans. I have been on and around a lot the Great Lakes region, and I have seen this for myself.

 

[Sunstone]

I'll say one thing for the Bush regime: It's been good for the rep of the American people abroad. People used to talk about how fat, loud and rude we were, but that's all faded into the background compared to how much they hate our government.

And that's the sort of progress we can all be proud of!

Americans are traditionally ignorant of other nations, cultures and societies. They have tended to leave foreign policy up to the politicians. Certainly our ignorance has proven to be a mistake, and our apathy towards foreign policy, I believe, has also proven to be a mistake, especially in recent years.

 

[mr.guy]

I agree that Canada has its part in it, but most of the pollution that is in Canada does come from the United States, the worlds largest polluter.

Incorrect. Proportionately, Ontario is north america's greatest polluter per capita. Alberta need look no further than it's oil sands if trying to isolate the cause of recent acid rain reports and cancer spikes. True, the US does pollute MORE, but wastfulness is a greater CANADIAN trait.

 

[Booko]

According to a French guy at my brother's work, "We don't hate Americans. We just think you're stupid."

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I hate all of this mild and verbal hostility between America and some countries. It's enough to make me want to leave, honestly. As I have never been outside of this country, I can't really say if and why they bash us, but it would worry me as I make travels. I feel I may be treated differently from other tourists.

I have never had any problems traveling abroad or meeting people here. If you show respect and consideration for others, you generally don't get crap back. Also, never start a sentence with "In America, we do it ...." They don't care. Any more than Southerners care what people from the North do.

 

[Booko]

I believe you are in denial.

There is no possible way that Canada pollutes more than the USA, especially in the east where most of the American industrialization is placed.
Detroit and Chicago are massive polluters of the region along with hundreds of other citys and towns.

I agree that Canada has its part in it, but most of the pollution that is in Canada does come from the United States, the worlds largest polluter.

I've spent plenty of time in Chicago and Detroit. 30 years ago they were horrible polluters. It's much different now, with the steel mills gone and the auto industry spread out in many places outside MIchigan and even the US.

 

[Booko]

I'm not in denial. The steel industry in the U.S. is mostly gone. And so are many of the paper mills. These industries along with agriculture are by far the largest contributors to pollution on the Great Lakes, and Canada still has many of it's steel and paper mills up and running. On Lake Superior, the sky over Thunder Bay and Sault St. Marie was blackened with pollution coming from industrial chimneys belonging to Canadian. Duluth, however was pretty clean. And there aren't any other major industrial centers on that lake. There are major American industrial centers on Lake Michigan at Chicago, Gary, and Milwaukee, but all of these centers were mostly steel-producers, and the steel plants are all shut down. In fact, I travelled on a Polish freighter that was bringing steel TO these cities in the U.S. from Amsterdam, because we no longer produce the steel, here, anymore. I admit that large American cities are still responsible for air pollution from cars, and there are far more cars in the U.S. than in Canada, but the major polluting factors over the last 20 years or so has not been the cars (as they have had to deal with emissions limits), but the steel and paper mills on the Great Lakes. And both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario still have major steel and paper centers running on the Canadian side, while the American mills are almost all shut down.

I travelled up the Detroit river and although there is a huge industrial center south of the city on the river, many of those factories are now closed, and the one's that remain have had to deal with some serious pollution restrictions over the last 30 years. Cleveland, too, is now an amazingly clean city - even the famous Cuyahoga River, that once caught fire because it was so polluted, is relatively clean these days, because the steel plants are all gone and because of environmental protection laws imposed in the last 30 years were strict. Same thing with the cities of Erie and Buffalo.

Yet on the Canadian side, the steel and paper mills in Nanticote, Port Colborne, Port Stanley, Hamilton, and Toronto are mostly all still active. If you stand on a boat in the middle of any of the four Great Lakes that are shared between Canada and the U.S., and scan to horizon for smoking industrial chimneys, you'll find that most of them are on the Canadian sides of the lakes, these days, and the few active industrial chimneys you see on the U.S. side are spewing out white smoke instead of black, because of pollution control laws.

I hate to say it, but I think it's you who is in denial. It was easy for Canadians to focus on the terrible pollution that the U.S. industrial cities were causing in the Great Lakes region over the last 50 years, and all the while ignore their own contribution to the problem. The thing is, that these days much of the American pollution has been cleaned up, both by a changing industrial focus and by stricter pollution control laws. Meanwhile the Canadians have done little about their own contribution to air and water pollution because they were so busy blaming it all on the Americans. I have been on and around a lot the Great Lakes region, and I have seen this for myself.

I affirm everything PureX is saying here. I'm from this region, and still spend 1/12th of my year there. There's a reason I've lived in Atlanta for so many years. The paper mills in Kalamazoo shut down. The auto industry work has moved mostly elsewhere (causing many of my husband's cousins to move also). The steel mills are shut.

What's left in Michigan is farming, tourism, hunting, and geriatric medicine (since there's nothing but geriatrics left). There is some industry like Stryker and various engineering and robotics work to be had, but not much. I'm not sure how much of a presence the chemical industry still has. It wouldn't surprise me if they left for other countries before the state sued their butts into bankrupcy for poisoning everyone in Michigan with PBBs years ago.

 

[ChrisP]

I have never had any problems traveling abroad or meeting people here. If you show respect and consideration for others, you generally don't get crap back. Also, never start a sentence with "In America, we do it ...." They don't care. Any more than Southerners care what people from the North do.

Surely not... I can't believe it... OMG!!! An American who understands WHY the world is a little p1ssed.

 

[Sunstone]

Surely not... I can't believe it... OMG!!! An American who understands WHY the world is a little p1ssed.

Now, Chrisp, in America we don't say what you just did. Why can't you be more like us in that regard? Given we've put a man on the moon, we should know how to run everyone's life, don't you think? I mean, if you can put a man on the moon, you can solve every problem from how to make love the best way to which side of the road is God given proper to drive on, right?

More seriously, I do all the time run into Americans who think they know how the world ought to run its business, and they are just as much bores here as they are abroad. Travel doesn't make you a more interesting and exotic bore, it just makes you a bore who's spread his borish behavior far and wide.

 

[Yerda]

Surely not... I can't believe it... OMG!!! An American who understands WHY the world is a little p1ssed.

There are more than a fair share here on RF.

Criticising American foriegn policy that only fosters democracy when it doesn't collide with powerful interests in the USA, and is an enemy to self-determination throughout the world is fair game for me. Perpetuating stereotypes about lazy, fat, ignorant rednecks isn't helpful though.

 

[d.]

to be fair, germans and brits make just as lousy tourists as you yanks do.

ok, to be even more fair, a lot of swedes turn pigs abroad also. it's probably most of all a 'rich western world' phenomenon.

 

[Sunstone]

All I really know about this tourist business is that there are people I get along with and people I don't, and it has much, much more to do with indiviuals than with what nationality those individuals are.

 

[d.]

All I really know about this tourist business is that there are people I get along with and people I don't, and it has much, much more to do with indiviuals than with what nationality those individuals are.

yeah, yeah, yeah. but where's the fun in that?

 

[Flappycat]

You've never known any Americans who liked frog legs? Where have you been hiding? I've even seen them served in cafeterias.

I was being silly, you silly.

 

[ChrisP]

There are more than a fair share here on RF.

Criticising American foriegn policy that only fosters democracy when it doesn't collide with powerful interests in the USA, and is an enemy to self-determination throughout the world is fair game for me. Perpetuating stereotypes about lazy, fat, ignorant rednecks isn't helpful though.

See this? This is my tongue in my cheek Where it usually is ... *sigh* you Scotsmen should stick to throwing logs, wearing checked dresses and any other stereotypes that are floating around out there

There are quite a few enlightened Amerkansi here, but birds of a feather ay? One day, I truly hope thing settle down a bit. While the people of that country are apathetic to it's businesses throwing their weight around in such a violent fashion I'll keep niggling and poking til enough of them get their arse into gear and put a stop to it.