4 ms·

I'm pretty frustrated that we're societally focused on plastic straws and shopping bags when things like this or needless empty flights are happening (https://n

by ekanes 5y ago

I'm pretty frustrated that we're societally focused on plastic straws and shopping bags when things like this or needless empty flights are happening (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29818050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29818050)

qqqwerty 5y ago
You are being overly cynical. Single use plastics are a pollution problem. I spend many hours a year volunteering at beach cleanups to try and help keep these things out of the ocean. It is absolutely absurd that we use single use disposable items that will pollute the environment for thousands of years. I also work in the clean energy industry and have devoted my entire career trying to fight climate change. I fully support efforts to curb single use plastic, and I fully support efforts to fight climate change. There are over 8 billion people in this world, we have more than enough human capacity to try and tackle both problems at once. The limiting factor is government inaction. So if you would like to point fingers, I suggest you aim them towards the politicians that have allowed the Oil and Gas companies to continue to pollute for so long.
- strainer 5y ago
  You are being blind. Those campaigns were fig leafs from the outset and if you are interesting in real action on shutting down single use plastic economy, you should know better than to wag your finger at those who complain about how ridiculous focus on carrier bags and tooth picks has been. Those campaigns only antagonise some consumers against the general concept, and gave others a false sense of inclusion and progress. They could never have achieved any practical impact on the single use plastic economy and this is why they got singled out for attention. Since the 90s a great social fuss has been raised over whether feather-light plastic carrier bags are used to help carry a shopping load (and eventually bin the remains). While since then, essentially everyone has rather been forced to continue to buy products which include ever increasing amounts of plastic packaging, amounts which utterly dwarf a couple of bags or straws or toothpicks or whatever the latest prescribed moral obsession is supposed to be. Ever increasingly, small portions of food are sold in thick plastic packets, every individual snack/bar is contained in plastic, and every pack of bars in another layer. It is even increasingly rare and difficult to source tea bags, tissues, and surprising products like toothpaste without plastics manufactured into them. The dissolution of the un-compostable and practically un-recyclable plastics economy, can not wait until everyone agrees to dutifully avoid the latest convenience item where 'effort' is systematically focused. Every little counts -> LITTLE. And that is what the wider industry counts on when it comes to these campaigns. They are nonsense obsessions promoted to waste attention. I spent last year cleaning up a beach too btw - fishing and shipping garbage overwhelmingly.
- ekanes 5y ago
  All totally fair. But I guess what bothers me is the feeling we're playing at Environmental Theater, just like at the airport we play at Security Theater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater

by ekanes 5y ago

qqqwerty 5y ago

You are being overly cynical. Single use plastics are a pollution problem. I spend many hours a year volunteering at beach cleanups to try and help keep these things out of the ocean. It is absolutely absurd that we use single use disposable items that will pollute the environment for thousands of years. I also work in the clean energy industry and have devoted my entire career trying to fight climate change. I fully support efforts to curb single use plastic, and I fully support efforts to fight climate change. There are over 8 billion people in this world, we have more than enough human capacity to try and tackle both problems at once. The limiting factor is government inaction. So if you would like to point fingers, I suggest you aim them towards the politicians that have allowed the Oil and Gas companies to continue to pollute for so long.

strainer 5y ago
You are being blind. Those campaigns were fig leafs from the outset and if you are interesting in real action on shutting down single use plastic economy, you should know better than to wag your finger at those who complain about how ridiculous focus on carrier bags and tooth picks has been. Those campaigns only antagonise some consumers against the general concept, and gave others a false sense of inclusion and progress. They could never have achieved any practical impact on the single use plastic economy and this is why they got singled out for attention. Since the 90s a great social fuss has been raised over whether feather-light plastic carrier bags are used to help carry a shopping load (and eventually bin the remains). While since then, essentially everyone has rather been forced to continue to buy products which include ever increasing amounts of plastic packaging, amounts which utterly dwarf a couple of bags or straws or toothpicks or whatever the latest prescribed moral obsession is supposed to be. Ever increasingly, small portions of food are sold in thick plastic packets, every individual snack/bar is contained in plastic, and every pack of bars in another layer. It is even increasingly rare and difficult to source tea bags, tissues, and surprising products like toothpaste without plastics manufactured into them. The dissolution of the un-compostable and practically un-recyclable plastics economy, can not wait until everyone agrees to dutifully avoid the latest convenience item where 'effort' is systematically focused. Every little counts -> LITTLE. And that is what the wider industry counts on when it comes to these campaigns. They are nonsense obsessions promoted to waste attention. I spent last year cleaning up a beach too btw - fishing and shipping garbage overwhelmingly.
ekanes 5y ago
All totally fair. But I guess what bothers me is the feeling we're playing at Environmental Theater, just like at the airport we play at Security Theater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater