Caterpillar Corporation is trying to get the U.S. Import-Export Bank to give China tax payers' dollars to buy Caterpillar earth moving equipment to quickly rip up the planned dam site before protest grows. The markets and restaurants of China serve as the single biggest threat to the population of threatened and endangered turtles worldwide. Rhinos are the world's most endangered species. Tiger parts are used in some traditional Chinese medicine. Most Siberian tigers are killed for export to China.
Ivory is marketed as an aphrodisiac as well as carved for jewelry and decorative pieces.
China has used the Tibetan plateau as a nuclear waste dumping site and as a storage area for nuclear missiles, a practice that has led to cancer deaths in adjacent villages. Because China lacks its own environmental review process for nuclear reactors, private investors are free from all environmental liability both before and after a project's completion a situation that will only worsen if China's natural resources are offered on the global market in a permanent MFN scenario. The Montreal Protocol is considered a successful, even model, MEA, and includes significant leeway and financial assistance to developing countries. Unfortunately, China has not yet ratified the Copenhagen Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. This amendment sets the phase-out schedule for methyl bromide and HCFCs.