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I find myself much less worried about plastic waste than about climate change. Yet I observe on Twitter and other social media that these problems are consider

I find myself much less worried about plastic waste than about climate change. Yet I observe on Twitter and other social media that these problems are considered equally important, sometimes people even treat them as equivalent. Am I missing something?

colechristensen 7y ago
Plastic degrades into tiny tiny little pieces that get absolutely everywhere and some of the compounds are active inside biology and because they are new, there isn't much for evolved mechanisms to deal with them. For example "BPA-free" is about bisphenol A which has similar hormone effects as estrogen. You end up eating enormously large amounts of plastic particles that just get stuck in you forever.
11235813213455 7y ago
Apparently plastics micro-particles is harming life in the soil, in oceans, rivers, everywhere
- panpanna 7y ago
  We know for example that microplastics in the oceans causes brain damage in fish. Right now, we have no idea how it affects humans.
yqx 7y ago
I see them both as symptoms of the same underlying problem: an economy based on generating enormous amounts of waste for short-term profit.
StevePerkins 7y ago
All of these worries churn, like any other fashion. Through a cycle of short attention span, and craving for novelty. 5-10 years ago in the grocery store line, myself and half the people in front of me were bringing our own reusable grocery bags. I feel guilty acknowledging this, but we all just seemed to... stop. Because it was a mild hassle, and the novelty wore off. I can't remember the last time I've seen someone with with their own bags, and I imagine that younger store clerks would be confused by them. We're still concerned about plastic (that worry comes and goes like a pendulum). We just got bored and lost our attention span for one of the most direct things we can do to reduce plastic. 10-15 years ago, myself and most of my political peers were more upset about Guantanamo Bay than plastic or climate change. Nothing ever changed there, but I can't recall the last time I've heard it mentioned. The average anti-war protestor of the post-9/11 years probably understands little to nothing about U.S. action in Syria over the past decade.
- sturgill 7y ago
  Not necessarily a universal solution, but our family primarily shops at Aldi. You have to pay for bags, so you either bring your own or use the empty cardboard boxes from stocking the goods.
  - dannyw 7y ago
    I love reusing empty cardboard boxes. They are useful for around the house too.
- dannyw 7y ago
  Most Australian states require grocery stalls to charge for bags. While a nice idea, instead of reusing my grocery bags as bin liners, I have to buy bin liners as well as the occasional bag when I forget. The net result is more plastic waste for me.
  - SECProto 7y ago
    How does this result in a net-increase in plastic waste? Were you somehow getting the exact number of bags you needed to use as bin liners, and now you buy extra?
    - fierarul 7y ago
      Some of these eco-rules result in inconveniencing your life and increasing your costs with at most a zero change of the overall plastics use.
    - dannyw 7y ago
      I usually had no more than 3-4 disposable plastic bags saved up as bin liners. Now I have to buy bin liners, as well as the occasional reusable plastic bag. The reusable plastic bag has 4x the plastic content of the disposable ones.
      - SECProto 7y ago
mrfusion 7y ago
That is weird. One ends the world in ten years or less and the other just does damage to the world.
- rkop 7y ago
  >One ends the world in ten years or less Al Gore, is that you?
ehnto 7y ago
Plastics are doing incredible damage to the ecosystem, and potentially our own species is included in that. Not much point in avoiding climate change if we destroy the ecosystem that sustains us anyway. Not to mention the carcinogenic potential of microplastics that are now in our food supply.
hannob 7y ago
I think "plastic in the ocean" is more easily imaginable. Until very recently climate change was pretty abstract and in many ways it still is, even though we see the effects. Not to be forgotten: Obviously the two are related, the petrochemical industry is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately a part of the oil industry. If people cut down unnecessary plastic use because they're worried about plastic particles in the ecosystem, they're also doing something good for the climate.
- mrob 7y ago
  >If people cut down unnecessary plastic use because they're worried about plastic particles in the ecosystem, they're also doing something good for the climate. If the oil isn't turned into plastics then it's just going to be burned instead. Plastics sequester carbon out of the atmosphere. Abandoning plastics without first introducing a carbon tax will harm the climate.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
They're both massive ecological disasters that can cause extinctions. They have a qualitative equivalence in that sense.
TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
They aren't separate issues! Plastics production produces a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. And both are concerned with pollution.
hinkley 7y ago
We can’t solve GHG emissions without restoring ecosystems, and if we are destroying them then we have at least two problems. One of the micro plastic sources nobody talks about is clothing. Every trip through the wash adds micro plastics to municipal wastewater. Every trip through the dryer puts some in your back yard. It’s one of the reasons I’m going back to cotton clothing, as horrible as the manufacturing process of those are. That said, ask those twitter people what they’re doing about their shoes, car tires, stretchy jeans, spanx... there’s not really much we can do right now, except keep asking scientists and manufacturers to do research. We know more about green house gasses. Practically speaking it’s the problem we can make more progress on.
megaremote 7y ago
> Yet I observe on Twitter and other social media that these problems are considered equally important, sometimes people even treat them as equivalent. How are you even judging that?

colechristensen 7y ago

Plastic degrades into tiny tiny little pieces that get absolutely everywhere and some of the compounds are active inside biology and because they are new, there isn't much for evolved mechanisms to deal with them. For example "BPA-free" is about bisphenol A which has similar hormone effects as estrogen. You end up eating enormously large amounts of plastic particles that just get stuck in you forever.

11235813213455 7y ago

Apparently plastics micro-particles is harming life in the soil, in oceans, rivers, everywhere

panpanna 7y ago
We know for example that microplastics in the oceans causes brain damage in fish. Right now, we have no idea how it affects humans.

yqx 7y ago

I see them both as symptoms of the same underlying problem: an economy based on generating enormous amounts of waste for short-term profit.

StevePerkins 7y ago

All of these worries churn, like any other fashion. Through a cycle of short attention span, and craving for novelty. 5-10 years ago in the grocery store line, myself and half the people in front of me were bringing our own reusable grocery bags. I feel guilty acknowledging this, but we all just seemed to... stop. Because it was a mild hassle, and the novelty wore off. I can't remember the last time I've seen someone with with their own bags, and I imagine that younger store clerks would be confused by them. We're still concerned about plastic (that worry comes and goes like a pendulum). We just got bored and lost our attention span for one of the most direct things we can do to reduce plastic. 10-15 years ago, myself and most of my political peers were more upset about Guantanamo Bay than plastic or climate change. Nothing ever changed there, but I can't recall the last time I've heard it mentioned. The average anti-war protestor of the post-9/11 years probably understands little to nothing about U.S. action in Syria over the past decade.

sturgill 7y ago
Not necessarily a universal solution, but our family primarily shops at Aldi. You have to pay for bags, so you either bring your own or use the empty cardboard boxes from stocking the goods.
- dannyw 7y ago
  I love reusing empty cardboard boxes. They are useful for around the house too.
dannyw 7y ago
Most Australian states require grocery stalls to charge for bags. While a nice idea, instead of reusing my grocery bags as bin liners, I have to buy bin liners as well as the occasional bag when I forget. The net result is more plastic waste for me.
- SECProto 7y ago
  How does this result in a net-increase in plastic waste? Were you somehow getting the exact number of bags you needed to use as bin liners, and now you buy extra?
  - fierarul 7y ago
    Some of these eco-rules result in inconveniencing your life and increasing your costs with at most a zero change of the overall plastics use.
  - dannyw 7y ago
    I usually had no more than 3-4 disposable plastic bags saved up as bin liners. Now I have to buy bin liners, as well as the occasional reusable plastic bag. The reusable plastic bag has 4x the plastic content of the disposable ones.
    - SECProto 7y ago

mrfusion 7y ago

That is weird. One ends the world in ten years or less and the other just does damage to the world.

rkop 7y ago
>One ends the world in ten years or less Al Gore, is that you?

ehnto 7y ago

Plastics are doing incredible damage to the ecosystem, and potentially our own species is included in that. Not much point in avoiding climate change if we destroy the ecosystem that sustains us anyway. Not to mention the carcinogenic potential of microplastics that are now in our food supply.

hannob 7y ago

I think "plastic in the ocean" is more easily imaginable. Until very recently climate change was pretty abstract and in many ways it still is, even though we see the effects. Not to be forgotten: Obviously the two are related, the petrochemical industry is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately a part of the oil industry. If people cut down unnecessary plastic use because they're worried about plastic particles in the ecosystem, they're also doing something good for the climate.

mrob 7y ago
>If people cut down unnecessary plastic use because they're worried about plastic particles in the ecosystem, they're also doing something good for the climate. If the oil isn't turned into plastics then it's just going to be burned instead. Plastics sequester carbon out of the atmosphere. Abandoning plastics without first introducing a carbon tax will harm the climate.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

They're both massive ecological disasters that can cause extinctions. They have a qualitative equivalence in that sense.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

They aren't separate issues! Plastics production produces a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. And both are concerned with pollution.

hinkley 7y ago

We can’t solve GHG emissions without restoring ecosystems, and if we are destroying them then we have at least two problems. One of the micro plastic sources nobody talks about is clothing. Every trip through the wash adds micro plastics to municipal wastewater. Every trip through the dryer puts some in your back yard. It’s one of the reasons I’m going back to cotton clothing, as horrible as the manufacturing process of those are. That said, ask those twitter people what they’re doing about their shoes, car tires, stretchy jeans, spanx... there’s not really much we can do right now, except keep asking scientists and manufacturers to do research. We know more about green house gasses. Practically speaking it’s the problem we can make more progress on.

megaremote 7y ago

> Yet I observe on Twitter and other social media that these problems are considered equally important, sometimes people even treat them as equivalent. How are you even judging that?