I am back by popular demand. Overcoming the summer sloth and apathy to present another mind probing article for your reading pleasure, even though it is now autumn, or is it spring yet? I don’t know, some days it is hot, some days cold, the seasons all blend intro each other in my scrambled egg mind. And, what better way to kick off the new season, but to celebrate plastic, one of the true joys of creation, and one of my favourites. Here is an article about how plastic bags help the environment:
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/plastic-bags-help-the-environment
“Banning them provides no benefit other than to let activists lord their preferences over others. Why do politicians want to take away our plastic bags and straws? This moral panic is intensifying even as evidence mounts that banning plastic is both a waste of money and harmful to the environment. If you want to protect dolphins and sea turtles, you should take special care to place your plastic in the trash, not the recycling bin. And if you’re worried about climate change, you’ll cherish those gossamer grocery bags once you learn the facts about plastic. During the 1970s, environmentalists wanted to restrict the use of plastic because it was made from petroleum. When the “energy crisis” abated, they denounced plastic for not being biodegradable in landfills. They blamed it for littering the landscape, clogging sewer drains and global warming. Plastic from our “throwaway society” was killing vast numbers of sea creatures, according to a 2017 BBC documentary series. The series prompted Queen Elizabeth II to ban plastic straws and bottles from the royal estates, and it galvanized so many other leaders that greens celebrate what they call the “Blue Planet Effect,” named for the series. More than 100 countries now restrict single-use plastic bags, and Pope Francis has called for global regulation of plastic. The European Parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic straws, plates and cutlery across the Continent next year. In the U.S., hundreds of municipalities and eight states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont—have outlawed or restricted single-use plastic bags. Greens in California are pushing a referendum to require all plastic packaging and single-use foodware in the state to be recyclable, and the European Union has unveiled a similar plan.”
Untorturably, I then hit a paywall so we never got to the punch line, like everything I do. But fear not, the main way plastic helps the environment is through providing shelter to all God’s creatures, especially sea creatures, who must get terribly cold being cold blooded and living in all of that freezing water. Plastic that does not strangle them to death would act like little raincoats for them. If plastic can keep me alive during the Adelaide winters, Adelaide being one of the coldest, most desolate places on Earth, then it must be ecologically good.