Most of what I write about so-called "free trade" has focused on the horrendous hits that workers take from globalization that is all about one major thing: seeking out the lowest wages. But, there is another piece to this: so-called "free trade" is destroying the planet. Oh, yes, I’m sure the advocates of so-called "free trade" would say, "pshaw…it’s just a part of progress and suck it up and live with it."

    Along comes the Sierra Club with a report that tells us why so-called "free trade" is a dirty deal:

• By promoting a ‘race to the bottom’ mentality where businesses are encouraged to relocate to countries with weak or non-existent environmental and labor laws.
• By creating unsustainable consumption patterns and an onslaught of ‘cheap’ products that do not reflect their real cost in terms of their environmental or social impact. For example, the average American meal is now shipped approximately 1,500 miles from field to dinner plate (about the same distance as from Chicago to Boise).  In climate-terms this means 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry.
• By sharply increasing the volumes and distances of goods shipped globally via fossil-fuel burning transportation (land, air, and water). Over the past 15 years, international trade has exploded and shipping capacity has grown by 50 percent.3 Satellite photographs show that trails of pollution thousands of miles long are causing semi-permanent clouds above shipping routes in the North Atlantic, Pacific and other oceans.
• By enabling rapid deforestation, natural resource depletion, and land conversion for industry, industrial agriculture, transportation, and commerce. Deforestation –which releases stored carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions –now accounts for 1/5 of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• By its trade rules which can thwart and/ or roll back policies crafted to protect communities and the environment such as local procurement regulations, renewable energy requirements, or standards regarding environmentally friendly production methods.  
• By its business-biased, closed-door trade tribunals. To date trade rulings have, by and large, sided with business interests over concerns for the environment. 

    The rest of the report is here. It’s useful to refer to these points with people for whom the marketing phrase "free trade" carries weight. Think of the people who drive a Prius: if they jump behind a wheel of their hybrid to drive to make up that 5-calorie strawberry that has made its way across a time zone or two, that well-meaning person will be taking a couple of steps back in his or her attempts to save the planet.