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   Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 06:22:44 JST Dave Neary

   • Evan Prodromou

   @evan I guess I'm a globalist - I said "very unimportant". It's important that you make more of a thing that you need which you are good at making, so that you can get the things you need and are not good at making IMHO.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 06:22:43 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @dneary what about the effects on climate change and biodiversity?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 06:23:23 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @dneary and the race to the bottom on wages and work conditions?

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 07:39:51 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @dneary what about the climate and biodiversity effects of importing fruit from Chile because it's in season during the winter? Or sending products back and forth across the Pacific Ocean for different steps in the manufacturing process?

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 07:39:53 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan The fiction of modern trade theory is that trade agreements are purely commercial - but they are political too.

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     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 07:39:54 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan Good points - I think trade agreements can (and should) have more conditions around environment and workers' rights. As it stands they do not.

     But I still think the idea of being completely independent is not very important.

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     M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 07:55:26 JST M. Grégoire

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan @dneary At present we use fossil fuels for transport, which is bad for the climate, but that's not a necessary feature of trade. In the past shipping was propelled by the the wind, and in the future it may be powered by battery.

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 10:10:15 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @dneary sure. There are things that only grow other places from where we live, like bananas. There is some economy of scale in making certain materials or finished goods.

   • Embed this notice
     Dave Neary (dneary@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Saturday, 03-May-2025 10:10:17 JST Dave Neary

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan Yes, again, good point. Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables, and having the "inconvenience" of no fresh tomatoes in December. I do think there is a reasonable level of shipping - I would like the container ships to be more fuel efficient, and think we should incentive that.