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If we cannot find a way to dispose of plastic without damaging people and the environment, perhaps we should stop producing it.
by oftenwrong 4y ago
If we cannot find a way to dispose of plastic without damaging people and the environment, perhaps we should stop producing it.
- Freak_NL 4y agoAnd bring the global economy to an instant standstill? No government is going to enact such a policy, no matter how environmentally friendly its politicians are; certainly not the ones running countries that produce plastic stuff.
- forinti 4y agoWe should at the very least stop producing and transporting around the globe useless items such as a plastic tree imported from China I saw on sale in Brazil. A plastic tree in Brazil that came all the way from China! It's surreal.
- tehjoker 4y agoIt would be nice to have an earth that supports human life for more than one or two more lifetimes.
- endisneigh 4y agoI assure you even if we were to continue in our current trajectory the Earth would support human life for more than two lifetimes. This is not to say that we shouldn't stop wasting, but let's not exaggerate. That being said the Earth definitely will become less comfortable if we don't put a pin on some of this stuff.
- TeMPOraL 4y agoConversely, were the global economy collapse completely, Earth will barely support human life for even one lifetime. Obligatory reminder: unless you're Sentinelese, it's highly unlikely you or your community is actually self-sufficient. For most people, everything they eat, everything they wear, everything they live in and live with, is a product of, or is directly dependent on, international manufacturing and shipping. If that goes, billions of people starve.
- Freak_NL 4y agoOf course. But that doesn't change the fact that stopping the production of plastic crap within a few years is not an option beyond the hypothetical realm. Nor is convincing the majority of people to stop buying all that crap simply on the basis of a moral plea. Pricing in externalities might work eventually (and will take a few decades to realize at any significant scale).
- josephcsible 4y agoI've been seeing ideas like this a lot lately and I really don't like them. If something that's been in widespread use for decades is bad for the environment, come up with a better alternative first, and only then stop producing the old thing.
- oftenwrong 4y agoWould you say the same if your home was coated in black plastic soot? Why should we hold course after mere decades of turning a blind eye toward the consequences of our lifestyle? Plastic pollution was not a problem for millennia. You come up with a better alternative to that.
- AussieWog93 4y agoI would rather have a home covered in black soot than the entire planet turned into a hyper-authoritaritan nightmare state just to reduce plastic waste.
- lebski88 4y agoOne of the interesting things I found in this article is that I had no idea what the plastic amazon pouches they kept talking about actually were. Here in the UK amazon ship everything in recycled cardboard. Presumably that's from either environmental pressure of government legislation. Even the tape is paper.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y agoMight also be because it's cheaper to ship rectangular boxes than bags here.