That we should all stop using plastic bags has become a commonplace assertion of our times. That we should do so in order to stop the sharks and rays and whales from drowning is given as the reason. The problem with this is that it’s not the plastic bags causing the problems in the oceans:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Sharks are getting tangled up in plastic rubbish and dying in horrific pain, scientists reveal[/perfectpullquote]OK, but which plastic rubbish?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Sharks and rays ‘starved and suffocated’ by plastic debris and ‘ghost’ fishing gear[/perfectpullquote]It’s the fishing gear:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The majority of entanglements involved abandoned, lost or discarded fishing equipment, known as ghost fishing gear.[/perfectpullquote]Yes, quite:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Both data sources suggested ‘ghost’ fishing gear sich as nets, lines and other equipment which has been lost or abandoned) were ‘by far the most common entangling objects’.[/perfectpullquote]Forcing me to carry the beer home from Tesco’s in a paper bag is really going to change this, isn’t it? So too paper straws…..
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Perhaps Tarquin and Jocasta could feelz better about saving the planet by driving the Tesla X out of London to the coast and gluing themselves to trawlers.
The placcy bags you see clogging up rivers in Indondesia are due to Indoneasians chucking them in the river and Indonesia not having a functioning waste disposal system, not due to me using a placcy bag in Asda.
What has science, facts, evidence got to do with Environmentalism?
The science anyway is settled: Humans have got to go... for the good of ‘the planet’