Many things in Life are Complex and can't be reduced to simple slogans.
The Environment is important!
Yes, I think it's important to have clean air, clean water and clean land!
But that's easier said than done!
We take items from the Earth for our everyday use! We don't want to live without those items.
Even reducing our use of such items can be complicated!
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For example, petroleum can be very dirty to our environment. Oil spills pollute the water, and the gasses that come from burning oil pollute the air.
Yes, many alternative sources of electricity (ie. solar, wind, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear) exist.
But much of the petroleum is being used for transportation.
(note: ironically, some of the most vocal Virtue Signalers on the environment drive their own cars! I don't! Who has the bigger carbon footprint now?)
But it's not just personal vehicles. It's also the ships and trains that transport the items we use! It's the planes we ride to travel.
Having transportation vehicles operate without oil and natural gas is the biggest challenges of our time.
We have to solve that transportation problem before we can even think of shutting down petroleum and natural gas operations.
The best we can do is make sure they are properly regulated so that they can retrieve the oil & gas with minimal effects on the environment.
As for pipelines, I think they are too risky. Because they are underground, it's hard to see their leaks until it's too late. This was why many people protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
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For electricity, the most efficient power source (besides fossil fuels) is nuclear energy. It doesn't produce the greenhouse gases that fossil fuels do. They also produce more electrical energy faster than wind or solar.
But nuclear accidents can have deadly consequences as we learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima.
So nuclear isn't really going to be more popular anytime soon!
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Yes, I know there are very inconsiderate people who litter plastic bags. Yes, I know plastic bags are bad for our lakes, rivers, streams and oceans.
But plastic bags are much more efficient than paper bags.
Plastic bags are stronger under wet conditions than paper bags.
Plastic bags are also easily reusable.
Plastic bags can be recyclable.
Just like there are financial incentives for the general public to recycle aluminum cans and glass bottles, there should be financial incentives to recycle plastic bags.
Financial incentives to recycle plastic bags will be the fastest way to get rid of all that plastic litter on our land and waters.
I always see the homeless looking for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles to recycle. This gives them a chance to make some money in a legal way.
Once financial incentives are there to recycle plastic bag, you will definitely see the homeless picking up plastic bags everywhere. All the litter would be gone fast! No homeless person wants to be the fool in his/her click that overlooked one plastic bag to be recycled.
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Some environmental conferences don't print their written materials on paper. They call it "going green".
They expect people to use their laptops and develop digital eye screen (which I'm feeling as I'm typing this).
But laptops (as well as smartphones and anything computer related) requires a whole bunch of minerals that are mined out of the ground. Mining operations are brutal on the environment.
Mining operations are also essential to make those Hydroflasks that Virtue Signalers believe should replace plastic bottles.
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As for paper, I think we should make our paper from hemp.
Hemp could produce the same amount of paper while using less space than trees. Hemp paper is also stronger and deteriorate slower than tree paper.
But the problem is hemp reminds people of marijuana, which scares right-wing conservatives.
Time to put those fears aside, encourage the use of hemp for paper, and allow users who prefer paper to use them to analyze long documents instead of being forced to develop digital eye strain from looking at screen.
Allow for hemp to be used to make plastics too! Hemp plastics are biodegradable and recyclable.
