Discussion: What do you think of recent...

What do you think of recent developments? We were always supposed to run out of gas, and now we are the largest oil producer in the world. Of course that doesnt mitigate the damage the auto has wrought on the built and unbuilt environment and public health. Meanwhile. some companies are going to eliminate small cars to focus on more lucrative large truck and suv models...on my recent trip to Europe travelling on the autobahn, secondary highways and country roads, (my uncles loaner) I saw zero pickup trucks,none. sometimes i felt like i was in a twilight zone episode, an alternative planet.

Well that's a war that's lost. No idea how men and women, raising future generations, express no concern for our deteriorating environment. They couldn't care less. With no kids, i think I work harder to limit my impact than any of my friends and neighbors with families. For instance, the neighborhood is full of SUVs, they all enjoy abundant air travel, and own big houses decorated in the latest styles. One acquaintance bought a brand-new house, never lived in...and tore it down to build bigger and more expensively.

But another shameful environmental battle that few foreign countries seem to fight is the huge plastic waste problem...did you read about the whale that died last week with nothing but plastic bags in his stomach? Or see the video of vets trying to extract a plastic straw from the nose/sinus/cranium of a sea turtle? I'm trying to cut back my single-use plastic items, by buying fresh rather than packaged, carrying my own washable cup and cloth bags, and buying bulk rather than small bottles. But it is tough.

.....Of the roughly 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics produced worldwide since the 1950s, about 6.3 billion have been thrown away...

...and have ended up in our oceans. And it is going to get worse: With China no longer accepting our waste for recycling, suddenly it no longer pays to recycle...no place to put the stuff, except into a landfill. And like it or not, most landfill plastic slowly breaks up, and washes downstream....to the ocean.