Can we solve the climate crisis without confronting global inequities?
A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found that white residents in the USA produce more climate pollution than black or hispanic residents, but black and hispanic people are exposed to more air pollution.
And that is just the USA! Think about the global inequities in the "haves" and the "have nots".
And how are we going to lift people out of poverty without making the climate crisis even worse?
If you are a resident in a wealthy country, is it your responsibility to address both problems at once? And what would that look like in terms of national and international policy?
Environmental Justice >
Biodegradable plastics
We should provide special government funding to research and develop biodegradable plastic alternatives. This would make littering less harmful, help clear out landfills, and stop unnecessary deaths caused by plastic in natural ecosystems.
I agree. Plastics are an enormous issue in the environment. There's actually a huge clump of plastics in the ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (aka the Pacific trash vortex). It's a collection of marine debris located near Japan. The plastics are not biodegradable, so they merely break down into smaller pieces, eventually becoming microplastics (some of which fall to the bottom of the ocean). Marine organisms are greatly impacted by these plastics, altering the food web and increasing the release and absorption of harmful pollutants. It is incredibly difficult to clean up marine debris, and the best option to reduce this giant accumulation of human waste is to create biodegradable plastics (or just limit plastic waste in general).
I would agree that coming up with alternatives for plastics would have a tremendous upside. I have always wondered why this problem is taking so long to fix and why the government has not put funding towards this. Also, it is crazy to me how places like Starbucks are able to use so many plastic cups and straws for their cold drinks however when you go to restaurants now all you can use are paper straws that begin to degrade after only a couple of minutes. I don't understand the idealogy behind this. On the other hand, the government would have to supply a lot of funding to limit the number of plastics being created and the companies making these materials would likely make less money. This would have a domino effect because, in return, there would have to be a rise in the price of these items for consumer purchase. Of course, the positive impacts of limiting our waste would outway the consequences and hopefully, in the next couple of years we can come up with some good alternatives that are affordable and better for the environment.