Same situation in my country!

Apart from the people who are so poor they have to scavange through human waste for plastic bottles, who else have you seen recycle. You should probably list your nationality so everyone has an idea about ehich countries we are talking about. After all we are not just from foreignland. In the UK everyone recycles by law. People have to pay higher taxes on cars that produce higher emissions. Lot's of people also have electronic cars. Many people cycle to work as it is nore environmentally friendly. In fact my hometown was one of the demo towns for showing that cycling is a viable alternative to driving a car. There are plans to build the largest off shore wind farm in the bay off the coast of my hometown too. I think any european eould be insulted if you suggested that the Chinese are more ecofriendly than them. I forgot to mention non energy saving lightbulbs are no longer available in the UK.

New Zealand Is Clean and Green

I don't see electric cars where I am, I see gas guzzling SUVs. There are a lot of electric bikes but I doubt people buy them to be environmentally friendly, they're just cheap transport. They would buy the V8 Land Cruiser if they could afford it.

In the area I live, you see people open their windows and throw their garbage out , any waterway will be choked with plastic bags, oily sludge and other garbage and a lot of the factories pump their toxic waste directly into the nearest river.

Chinese are not at all eco conscious.

。。。This is a  joke question, right?

where I live people throw rubbish out of the window all the time.

This morning I took the stairs instead of the elevator in my building, only to discover a kuaidi guy squatting in the stairwell, taking a shit.  You think these people give a rat's ass about recycling?

What a joke... There's very little environmentalism in China. People in big cities mostly drive cars or wish they could drive a car instead of using public transportation. Americans might emit more greenhouse gases per capita but that's a result of suburban sprawl and greater wealth, not a lack of concern about the environment. No, Americans are not the most Eco friendly people by and large but more so than Chinese from what I've seen.

I was up north near Shenyang recently, and I was surprised to see a lot of wind turbines. Awesome, I thought... why aren't they moving? (granted, it was a fairly still day...).

I've seen recycle bins. I've also seen the rubbish in recycle bins go into the same big orange bin the cleaner uses as the non-recycle bins!

I've seen a few electric cars. There are a whole pile of rental vehicles available now in my city. However, I'm not totally convinced that this isn't so much aimed at eco-friendly, as 'good advertising stunt that is cheap and could bring in more money'.

There definitely are attempts at genuine eco-friendly activities - there are eco-warriors out there, there are green groups getting together. But they are the standouts (perhaps the bad apples ).

As a whole - no. China is still very much living like kids - spoilt brats who care noting about anything except themselves. Most 'eco-friendly' merely coincides with being poor or cheap.

I will let this photo I took in Bao'an, SZ (2008) speak for itself.

I've met people who find that having a high electricity bill is a means of gaining face. I am certain all the people who have hybrids have them for the same reasons, although it could also be that they are more quiet on the parking lot, if there is one thing Chinese people can't stand then it is the sound of a finely tuned engine humming along. 

The Chinese are to eco-friendly what George Bush Junior is to pacifism.

That is about as succinct as I can put it.

Why did you capitalize "CITIZENS?"  You make it sound as if the environmental degradation is caused by illegals or foreigners in China.

Furthermore, you claim you're a US citizen and that the average Chinese is more eco-conscious.  I call BS!  You must have a tight-knit, enlightened group of Chinese you hang with.  Definitely not the norm. 

You're thinking is still flawed, Daphne.

You're now wanting to refer to the average Zhou, instead of only looking at the companies, businesses, government policies, etc...

However,.... those things don't exist on their own. They are run by...people!

The photo DiverDude posted... that rubbish wasn't thrown there by any company or organisation... it was thrown there by the indivdiuals who live a work in that area.

There is HUGE hype about pollution (in China, and elsewhere) of various types - and EVERYBODY wants to blame someone else... for Beijing and Shanghai, the blame goes to the factories (elsewhere...), while the government tries to regulate the cars (which, statistically, only produce around 10-15% of the pollution!)

So - the governmnent tries to intro policies to cut down on the pollution caused by cars - engineering, number of vehicles on the road... Do you think the average Zhou would be changing their vehicle to a cleaner one if they weren't told to? I don't! (mostly... sure, there is a certain percentage that is environmentally aware... but it's certainly NOT the majority!)

In my country, we've had environmental awareness for quite a while. Lord Hanson mentioned that the UK ONLY has energy saving light bulbs... in Australia, we have both. And you know what - they still sell well!!! So, people - individuals like the one's your comparing - make the choice to buy green!

They have the choice here too... so it would be interesting to see the sales figures! More expensive, eco-friendly energy saving bulb, or the cheaper nastier bulb?

(unfortunately, many people take cheaper... - "I'm not paying another $10 a month just to help save the environment!!!")

I am more...... ....than you all!

I'm grocery shopping every third day on average. I exchange/buy new plastic grocery bag once a month......0.4 Rmb, if the price didn't change since (last) October......

I told you, I am more......