I’ve sometimes thought Bill McKibben was little more than a do as I say not as I do type fraud, especially since he flies so much. #greensgobyair . Seems I was right. Via Twitchy:
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Environmentalist Bill McKibben is the head of the anti-carbon group 350.org as well as a “notable member” of the “Plastic Pollution Coalition,” which seeks to make all cities “plastic free.”
McKibben has also said this:
“Some fights, like global warming, are necessarily hard. And some fights are no-brainers: let’s stop using plastic stuff we don’t need.”
Unless there’s no other way to get your groceries home from the store, apparently.
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See picture:
Source:
[ https://twitter.com/scollinzz/status/386163293301116928 ]
As far as paper grocery bags are concerned they can have a minor, little, irritating problem…cockroaches. Supposedly they commute in the bags. And anywhere there’s a concentration of food, such as grocery stores, there’s going to be creatures trying to eat it.
As far as the cloth grocery bags are concerned they have their problems too. I’ve been told you can’t wash them; at a minimum the dye will leech out. And after they’ve been used a bit one can rest assured that there’s going to be unpleasant things coming to life around the fibers within them.
And as far as glass bottles are concerned one thing that occurred as the glass fell into disfavor compared to metal cans and plastic is that the widespread presence of broken glass in our alleys began to disappear.
I guess our ecowarriors want us to rediscover all these treats.
Seattle now charges shoppers for plastic bags. Safeway now sells plastic bags that are much thicker and larger than the ordinary flimsy type. I reuse them. They don’t need washing because they don’t absorb fluids. (If I’m wrong and they do need washing, they only need a quick rinse.)
The common plastic bag IS recyclable. WalMart has a bin where you can bring them back. So does Hannaford Supermarket (Bill must live in New England). Any bags I don’t use for liners (if I didn’t, I’d have to buy special liners ) I bring back.
1. What’s all the fuss about?
2. I find it disturbing (somehow) that he shops at the same grocery chain as I do.
Why stop at plastic? What about all the aluminum pollution? And paper pollution, and even glass pollution? Get rid of those. Let’s see, what else can we ban?
How about eco-loons? Ban them. Problem solved.
The register looks like the register that Alister Dabbs (of The Register, aka El Reg) had to fight with
(see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/04/something_for_the_weekend_shopping_hell/).
I suspect the antipode of Deus ex machina…
Here in Germany we’re, erm, encouraged to use cloth or reusable grocery totes. Not a bad idea,
except that they often are made in China, with various chemicals added to improve stability,
appearance, and reduce cost, etc. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, I expect. Goodness knows what
actually is in the wax that some of them are coated with…..(hey, maybe they glow in the dark
for safety on the way home….)(maybe cook dinner at the same time…).
The recycling fee for one-way bottles/etc. has met with mixed success, probably because there
are some folks who would rather chuck bottles, cans, etc. no matter how high the fee is.
Kind of funny thinking my parents and parents-in-law, all of whom endured the depression and WWII
(and following) were very concerned with “sustainability”, because they were the
ones being sustained by avoiding waste. My mother-in-law (here in Germany) would
often use food after the “sell-by” date, and found it difficult to simply toss cans and other
packaging material as it might come in handy some time. She made it to 90, so I think
going a few days or weeks longer (on the food) didn’t matter so much after all.
The “Greatest Generation” didn’t need the Greens or anyone else to tell them what to do.
They just avoided waste….waste not, want not.
In Scouts we were always advised to leave a campsite in better shape that that
in which we found it. I think that probably applies to everything………
Let’s see: Paper bags + Garbage Burner Electric Plant (Local County) = CO2 + H2O, CO2 + H20 + Plants + Sun = More paper, Plastic Bags + Garbage Burner Electric Plant = C02 +H2O, again plus Plants + Sun = More Paper. I see the problem. By burning PLASTIC we increase the number of PAPER BAGS. Obviously out of balance!
Polyethylene can be easily produced (and is produced) from sugar cane or corn. (Bioethanol source). So we can relieve the offensive oil stigma from the entire conversation. Of course, bioethanol ultimately starves poor people, especially in developing countries—do the McKiddings of the world even care? Or is depopulation, removing these “useless eaters” their real goal? Sometimes I wonder…
navytech (retired) says:
“The common plastic bag IS recyclable.”
Yes. I recycle mine by using them to empty our cats’ litter box. In fact, we save them for exactly that purpose. And I do not feel the least bit guilty about it.
We are doing our part to Save The Earth™. Our cats are doing their part, too.☺
Many years ago Johnny Carson asked Paul Ehrlich why he was wearing a very expensive suit if such things were part of the reason Earth’s population was doomed. Ehrlich’s answer was of the sense that when one was sailing on the Titanic an extravagance of such nature did not matter. Bill McKibben might say a similar thing. The real answer is they want to and they can. We, however, are supposed to feel guilty for eating.
At the grocery store, I find someone stocking shelves and ask for the cardboard box. Most get crushed there in the aisle. I can use it over, and over, and over. And do.
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Jeff says:
October 5, 2013 at 1:50 pm
About those “sell by dates” and the other wordings –
Such things are advice about the peak quality (or plateau of quality) of the product, so do not represent the date after which food should not be used. A lot of food is thrown out and thus wasted because of these dates. Here is a start on the topic:
http://www.eatbydate.com/sell-by-date-definition/
Folks are trying to improve on the sorts of things put on boxes so as to not have so much good food tossed.
My apathy regarding Bill McKibble knows no bounds. .
The one-size-fits-all dimbulbs are annoying. I always walk to the grocery store. It’s uphill and about ½ a mile. I never drive.
Plastic bags are the only bags that are both sufficiently strong and capacious enough for me to walk the ½ mile home with all the groceries.
The bags are, of course, recycled.
Some of the “save the world” crowd have all the analytical abilities and tolerance of granite.
Jorge — lol.
John Hultquist!
I’ve noticed you’ve been gone awhile from W-U-W-T. Hope all is well over there east of the mountains. How did the blueberries turn out this year?
That’s good to know about labeling improvements. I tend to just use the “looks okay…. smells okay….” — I’ll eat it! — rule. #(:))
Take care.
(still remembering that we who wait, also “serve” — you sure encouraged me with that, thanks again),
Janice
John Garrett, you get a merit badge! Seriously, that’s great. Good for you.
Re: “analytical abilities and tolerance of granite.” — nice one. If I may, I’d like to make it, more optimistically, “… of cardboard… .” That way, we can expect them to go away, soon. HA — and WATER is turning their propaganda into soggy, useless, slop (water as in truth about ENSO and other water-related drivers of climate DOMINATING climate changes).
“And some fights are no-brainers”
If the cap fits, wear it Bill.
MarkG 11.07am – I still live in Britain, about a mile and a half from a stop off on a major route. My opinion of the people who stop off to but a coffee and a burger and then chuck the rubbish out of the window because they can’t be bothered to take it home with them makes my blood boil as they are littering ‘my’ beautiful countryside. Coupled with the plastic drinks bottles, the odd beer bottle (thanks a lot for the broken glass) and empty fag packets, I have a very low opinion of the general driving public. Maybe if they had a plastic bag in the car they might be more inclined to take it home and bin it there, but I think that might be wishful thinking. The village organises a litter pick once a year and I can’t describe some of the stuff we pick up. It is revolting.
Bill needs to chill out and listen toa little George Carlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
Since McKibben’s body contains a large amount of carbon atoms, his zero carbon world would be a world without McKibben.
Maybe he bought some “indulgences” from High Priest Gore?
‘Rube’ is the word that comes to mind
@shenanigans24, Margaret Smith, Stephen Rasey and others –
If ever there were a case of false environmentalism, it’s the bans on plastic bags. Our Agenda 21-driven city council here in Chico, California, has just enacted a ban despite warnings that paper bags are difficult for handicapped people to handle, and reusable bags carry a significant risk of food-borne diseases. And as Margaret points out, 5p (about 8 cents US) per bag could well add up to a serious hardship for lower-income people. Our esteemed city councilors evidently decided that political correctness must prevail over the interests of their constituents, and never mind the energy waste and other environmental impacts (more trees killed, e.g.) of the alternatives.
Funny how “green” really isn’t.
A major food retailer here in Australia has recently abandoned its policy of charging for plastic bags (to discourage use) … its customers voted with their feet and went elsewhere, and its market share went with them … turnover down, profits down.
I think he may be on his way to becoming a bag lady.
First world problems.
I NEVER shop where someone charges me for a plastic bag. And if they try to I make sure they know that I’m not coming back, and that’s the reason. Yes, it’s petty, but if enough people did it they would have to take notice.
NO plastic bag goes to waste here, they are reused. I’ve yet to see anyone throw a plastic grocery bag into the street.
And if bags are blowing in the wind or getting stuck in fences or trees, then pick them up. Don’t think you need to inconvenience the world because of your little issues. Personally I think most bags that do escape to blow in the wind are falling right out of the stupid city-owned garbage bins that almost every place in the first world are going to.
But if you’re one of these anti-plastic-bag campaigners but you still use them, then you are of less value that pond scum.
They enacted a cigarette butt law here: up to $1000 if you’re caught throwing one out your car window. In case anyone didn’t notice, cars don’t come with ashtrays anymore, and yet a large percentage of the population DOES smoke. I once had a cop follow me home because he saw I was smoking and wanted to see what I did with the butt. I’m sure anyone reading this will know what I was tempted to do with it… (I have a dollar store ashtray that fits in a cupholder, and I keep some water in so the combustion stops immediately when I throw them in.)
Rob Dawg says:
October 5, 2013 at 9:37 am
How is he going to walk home with all those groceries?
As brevity is ‘…the Soul of Wit.’ . . . Grand effing Slam!
bubbagyro says:
October 5, 2013 at 2:04 pm
Gapminder kCal/capita/day 1061-2006
Doesn’t look like successful depopulation strategy to me… Even in Africa, some progress – note that this is per capita, so Ehrlich’s starvation scares have entirely missed the point. The biggest failure amongst the catastrophists yet still revered by leftists the world over; unfortunately, I don’t have a statistic of IQ correlated with political leanings.