Seriously, WTF?

Why, in Beijing, where they don’t have that disadvantage, they banned the environmentally destructive plastic bag! In one day! Just like that! “One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks,” wrote Friedman. “But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

Ok, so I totally get the point of the article, that going green really is building up a huge amount of political power, and thus can be used for evil Big Brother government to control through the use of 'saving the planet'. I get it, really. But how the hell can someone really say that because Beijing has cut out the use of plastic bags that China is being led by a 'reasonably enlightened group of people'?

China is the number one carbon polluter country in the world, and it being led by an autocracy is not the singly largest reason by any means by it is a polluter or why it is being applauded for the steps it has taken to produce less waste.

I think there are some serious implications in this article, and I think that saying 'democracy has f*cked up the planet' is a bit harsh. A political system didn't allow it to happen, everyone allowed it to happen. Blaming one system is as effective as expecting that one system to fix the problem without people getting off their fat asses and doing something about it. And preferably, something more than injecting RFID chips into every consumer product for the sake of selling more unneeded products.