Anti-plastic crusaders stuck holding the bag

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | March 09, 2008

[Man50D]

A lot of environmentalists are learning how George Bush felt after invading Iraq and finding no weapons of mass destruction.

Scientists are attacking the global campaign to ban plastic shopping bags, saying the activists' claim that the modern conveniences are responsible for the deaths of 100,000 animals and one million seabirds is based on a "typo" in a 2002 report and there is no scientific evidence showing the bags pose a direct threat to marine mammals.

Researchers and marine biologists have told the London Times plastic bags pose, at best, a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.

"I've never seen a bird killed by a plastic bag," said Professor Geoff Boxshall, a marine biologist at the London Natural History Museum. "Other forms of plastic in the ocean are much more damaging. Only a very small proportion is caused by bags."

In November, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban large grocery stores from distributing plastic bags. Santa Monica, Calif., and Connecticut are considering similar bans. Last month, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced he would force supermarkets to charge for the bags, calling them "one of the most visible symbols of environmental waste."

That move has caused a number of UK scientists to criticize the government for jumping on the "bandwagon" without sound science to back up its decision.

Driving the campaign is the claim, found in a 2002 report commissioned by the Australian government, that 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds are killed by ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic bags. The figure was derived from a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland that found 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, killed by discarded fishing nets.

[ThreePuttinDude]

OH OH, redo - we call for a redo

/sarc

[gridlock]

Last month, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced he would force supermarkets to charge for the bags, calling them "one of the most visible symbols of environmental waste."

All of this Green Weenie nonsense is a psychological exercise, and nothing more. Plastic Bags are a symbol of environmental waste, so we can pretend that by eliminating the symbol, we are eliminating the waste. Of course, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other, but that does not matter.

From the Government's point of view, the important thing is that they can demand to control individual action in order to achieve some environmental goal, and the people can be conditioned to comply. This is yet another opportunity to train the people, to "groove the swing", as they say in golf, so that compliance with environmental edicts becomes second nature.

This is was recycling was and is all about, as well, of course. No environmentalist actually thinks recycling does a damn thing to improve the environment. Recycling is a symbol, and our compliance with the arcane laws of sorting and bundling is our acceptance of the symbol, and a daily demonstration of our willingness to surrender freedom to support the latest environmental fad.

[Louis Foxwell]

From the Government's point of view, the important thing is that they can demand to control individual action in order to achieve some environmental goal, and the people can be conditioned to comply. >/I>

Precisely.

Environmentalism is pure Marxism. Its edicts subject ordinary people to arbitrary government authority. Environmentalism is about eating, drinking, working and breathing. These are the activities the tyrants among us seek to control.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

So, instead of typing “fishing gear/tackle”, the type “plastic bags”

And then they call that a “typo” and not a deliberate lie?

[reformedliberal]

Am I the only one who remembers we were supposed to request/use plastic bags in order to save trees?

Since then, we made it a practice to request paper bags when were supposed to save non-threatened trees. Now, when asked “paper or plastic”, I say “whatever you want.”

Personally, the plastic bags are a pain for groceries (which tend to fall out and get lost under a car seat or in a corner of the trunk) and fine for everything else. They also come in handy for packing wet swim gear in the summer.

How much proof do the idiots need that is just about control?/rhetorical question

[JDLinn]

I sail model sailboats. One day one sunk. We “sailed” a string across the pond and hooked it to a rope with a grappling hook on the end and began moving the hook back and forth across the pond. Every time the hook came up, it was fouled with plastic bags ... no problem, we took them off and laid them out on the bank of the pond behind us and resumed our deep pond search for the missing sailboat. After a couple of hours we finally hooked the little boat (worth about $800 and worth the effort) and dragged it to the safety of the shore. But the real story was on the bank behind us. We had laid out over 250 plastic bags. A local reporter had a camera and the next thing you know, there was the picture in the paper. I have no moral to this story (except don't chase a goose family with little ones or the big ones will STOMP your boat!). But its curious that people (stores) put their NAMES on these bags ... bags that will last a lifetime in a little pond. Does it hurt the animals, probably not, but you'd think in this age of laws and lawyers, people would rather put their name on a paper bag that “disintegrates” rather than on a plastic bag that “remains” for 100,000 years or so (who knows?). If I was running a company, I'd used paper bags... who knows what retroactive environmental whacko law the libs might come up with to go after deep pockets using the plastic bags as proof? Just food for thought.

[reformedliberal]

Once in a while, especially after strong winds, I will see plastic bags snagged on trees/bushes in my rural area of Wisconsin. I never see them in/around our small river and my sailor husband has never found them around his slip when he has to go under the boat to clear water weeds. Rarely, I see them in the ditches, but we have good Adopt-A-Highway programs that keep the roadsides clean.

However, on the windward side of every island I have ever explored in the Pacific and Caribbean, there are literally mountains of trash, including the bags. Fishermen will build markers out of them that only last a short time until the next storm.

Degradable bags would be fine. Not using plastic bags would be fine. But political stunts like banning them or charging for them are useless, again, IMO.

Years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about recycling. I had been told by the manager of our landfill that except for aluminum, they have more recyclables than they can sell and every once in a while, they just put the cans and bottles into the landfill. My friend was shocked and stated that she recycles because “it makes me feel better about myself.”

We have had anti-littering programs for 35 years. Why aren’t they succesful enough to keep all these bags out of your lake? The world really was a messier place back in the 1960s and it seems to me that this has improved tremendously. However, it is all about control, not about wildlife, the environment or cleanliness.

I do agree that companies that print their names on non-degradable bags are simply asking for a judgement.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Now, when asked “paper or plastic”, I say “whatever you want.”

I alway request wicker or stainless steel.

[Katya]

so the author of the study inadvertently replaced fishing nets with plastic bags...

I don’t see a problem....think about how many fish are killed by the use of fishing nets every year...hmmmmm???

>sarcasm alert<

[gridlock]

My friend was shocked and stated that she recycles because “it makes me feel better about myself.”

And that is what it is all about. Your friend feels better about herself because she knuckles under to petty government authority. This is a reaction the government wants people to get used to feeling. Today it is about recycling. Tomorrow it will be the government-controlled thermostat. Who knows what it will be after that.

Every time I recycle I feel dirty, like I have sold by birthright of freedom to avoid getting hassled by my garbage man. I resent the Hell out of it, every time.

[reformedliberal]

I resent it, too.