Thank you Emily. On Feb 17, an email by Arianna Skibell from POLITICO Power Switch landed in my inbox. Before it even mentioned plastics or fossil fuels, it managed to associate this wreck with wind, solar, electric transmission, lithium mines which might be "endangering people and wildlife" and "the president's climate strategy." REALLY. And this is what the DC staffers get in their inboxes. Just weird. Annoyingly weird.
What's particularly galling about all of this is what a collective failure it is across levels of government over time. We knew Trump wouldn't intervene to improve railway safety and would deliberately roll back protections at that. Even when Dems have controlled the White House, though, it sadly hasn't been a priority.
This is a great article, and mainstream media is failing here for not making the plastic and fossil fuel connection like you do.
And I agree with reducing the amount of plastic society use, but like a lot of issues the scale just seems insurmountable.
"Humanity is now churning out a trillion pounds of plastic a year, and production could triple from 2016 levels by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum. "
I can't even conceptualize a trillion pounds, so how do you even begin addressing that?
This is so good. I feel like it's true that we can't live without plastics.... but do those plastics have to come from fossil fuel-derived chemicals? I'm cautiously optimistic about synthetic biology for plastics.
Industrial pollution is avoidable and must be contained and certainly managed better than this one you describe… But to use it to further this anti-industry diatribe is pointless. If we think this way we would have not moved past the cave entrance and the use of fire that although dangerous humans mostly have learned to control. The modern society you enjoy is based on an industrial journey and the materials you are complaining about don’t just make cheap plastic toys.. they also make pharmaceuticals and other life saving and improving products. The problem with most environmental activists is they are under educated on industrial supply chains and have no clue where there “bread is buttered” and quickly forget how their life is supported by our modern society. Of course we can do better, but in the future technologies will still fail and business mistakes will still be made, so get used to it…Yes… we will need to learn from such mistakes.. but I am not going back to that cave!!
Thank you Emily. On Feb 17, an email by Arianna Skibell from POLITICO Power Switch landed in my inbox. Before it even mentioned plastics or fossil fuels, it managed to associate this wreck with wind, solar, electric transmission, lithium mines which might be "endangering people and wildlife" and "the president's climate strategy." REALLY. And this is what the DC staffers get in their inboxes. Just weird. Annoyingly weird.
Lying comes as second nature to the anti-Environmentalists, and believing these liars sadly comes as second nature to many Republicans.
What's particularly galling about all of this is what a collective failure it is across levels of government over time. We knew Trump wouldn't intervene to improve railway safety and would deliberately roll back protections at that. Even when Dems have controlled the White House, though, it sadly hasn't been a priority.
Great work as usual!
This is a great article, and mainstream media is failing here for not making the plastic and fossil fuel connection like you do.
And I agree with reducing the amount of plastic society use, but like a lot of issues the scale just seems insurmountable.
"Humanity is now churning out a trillion pounds of plastic a year, and production could triple from 2016 levels by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum. "
I can't even conceptualize a trillion pounds, so how do you even begin addressing that?
This is so good. I feel like it's true that we can't live without plastics.... but do those plastics have to come from fossil fuel-derived chemicals? I'm cautiously optimistic about synthetic biology for plastics.
Industrial pollution is avoidable and must be contained and certainly managed better than this one you describe… But to use it to further this anti-industry diatribe is pointless. If we think this way we would have not moved past the cave entrance and the use of fire that although dangerous humans mostly have learned to control. The modern society you enjoy is based on an industrial journey and the materials you are complaining about don’t just make cheap plastic toys.. they also make pharmaceuticals and other life saving and improving products. The problem with most environmental activists is they are under educated on industrial supply chains and have no clue where there “bread is buttered” and quickly forget how their life is supported by our modern society. Of course we can do better, but in the future technologies will still fail and business mistakes will still be made, so get used to it…Yes… we will need to learn from such mistakes.. but I am not going back to that cave!!