Plastic pollution clearly is an emergency now, but that this much of it comes from abandoned fishing gear means cutting the pollution at it's source should be a lot less complicated than trying to completely change the whole world's view on plastic production.
Obviously we still need to curb plastic production globally, but it's so commonplace that this will be almost impossible to realistically achieve with the world the way it is. I'd hope that over time we could introduce legislation to move to biodegradeable plastics, but really, we need to change our cultural view of consumption and waste entirely.
It's a task that makes solving climate change look trivial, so I'm struggling to hold out hope - although the one ray of light here is that it seems that the scale of the problem is bi-partisan acknowledged, for example, on the left:
So at least some cause for optimism if the WHO can pressure the UN to take multilateral action, but it'll take pressure on the ground from people the world over.
Plastic pollution clearly is an emergency now, but that this much of it comes from abandoned fishing gear means cutting the pollution at it's source should be a lot less complicated than trying to completely change the whole world's view on plastic production.
Obviously we still need to curb plastic production globally, but it's so commonplace that this will be almost impossible to realistically achieve with the world the way it is. I'd hope that over time we could introduce legislation to move to biodegradeable plastics, but really, we need to change our cultural view of consumption and waste entirely.
It's a task that makes solving climate change look trivial, so I'm struggling to hold out hope - although the one ray of light here is that it seems that the scale of the problem is bi-partisan acknowledged, for example, on the left:
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/12/micropla...
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/world/midway-plas...
On the right:
Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5491469/Micro...
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/03/16/93-percent-bott...
So at least some cause for optimism if the WHO can pressure the UN to take multilateral action, but it'll take pressure on the ground from people the world over.