They see no reason why they have to be capped and penalised for the decades of excess and greed that we have enjoyed for too long. Why should they pay for our pollution policies, just as they are reaching the point of growth?

They have a point … We should have been preventing excess pollution decades ago. Now the devil is out of the cage and we can’t catch him or stop the relentless need for consumerism.

And who is it that fulfills China’s greatest market for expansion? Yes, it’s us in the west who blindly demand more and more cheap goods and lower prices from retailers. We give them the reason to expand and take over the pole position of pollution leaders, so that we can consume.

Don’t be under any illusion that China provides tha vast proportion of consumer goods in our high street. Whether it’s that small item from the pound shop, the Morphy Richards iron, or the Disney toy that cost so much. Check the label and you’ll see where it was made.

So again, we need to look at our own reflection to see who really has mud on their face. We are all caught up in an unholy alliance of consumer trade that serves only the human epidemic of greed and lust for self interest.