Pragmatic Environmentalist: Watching the Public Fall for Environmental "Feel Good" Scams and Spam
A couple of years ago I wrote this post. Everyone seems to be in a general state of denial about this problem with charging these vehicles in Poland. This is classic "green wash" (the superficial appearance of being environmentally- conscious). The latest green wash is plastic straw bans. Most all of the plastic in the ocean comes from emerging economies where there is often not even household waste service (everyone dumps everything). Plastic in the EU and US will end up in landfill, waste recovery plant or being recycled. Only a small fraction is capable of being recycled, which itself uses more energy than it saves. Plastic bans in the West will do nothing about plastics in the ocean except make people feel good about themselves, i.e. more virtue-signaling. Just like eliminating all US carbon emissions will only reduce temperature by 0.03 degrees under the UN IPCC's own model: a change that will be quickly swept away by events. The full achievement of the Paris Accords will also not doing anything to stop the projected model's warming. The good news is that that warming is only in their model and not in reality. What is missed in the vast majority of environmental policy initiatives seized by the public is any real concern over the facts. Political correctness and being "woke" are more important than having any real world impact.
If your follow my blog (Mott'd Blog) you know that I am an ardent advocate of renewable energy and better waste management. But it is sometimes very lonely to be a pragmatic environmentalist.
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