I am with you and have lived on ecological awareness all my life. Germany was way ahead of the US - still is - in many ways. Even though when I went back - I was disappointed to see how much one use containers and plastic wrapping they are using now.
And I agree that a lot of the discussing is just a smoke screen.
And, most, if not all politicians, especially here where it takes so much money to be elected, are in the pocket of the few who own just about anything and are pulling the strings to make the puppets dance.
Gunther Grass - a German writer and journalist wrote about all of that over 40 years ago when I was a very political teenager.
The older I get, the more I feel that we can influence little and a lot at the same time. We can by how we spend our money and how we live our lives.
When I found Permaculture, I was in love. for one, it is founded on ethics - earth care and people care (which really, people care is part of earth care) are the main principals. And if we practice that, we are okay. then, we are not throwing food away while half of the world is starving - we are not seeling weapons to governments that then go ahead and use them to commit warcrimes - Saudis right now in Yemen and who put Sadam in charge and gave him gas he promptly used on the Kurds? And then, we got mad when he didn't want to give up the oil anymore.
Anyway, it makes me sick to think about that and there is nothing I can do. But I can plant trees, share healthy food, talk about stuff like that on the podcast and maybe inspire someone to stop using round up...
And why do we need straws to begin with? I don't 🤪
Some do need straws. Read the article not the headline though.
Total agreement on the rest!
I will read it - in a little bit. Get to the prompts first. but I opened it :)
Oh, I one hundred percent agree that people tend to take one "sexy" subject and put all their energy there and forget about the bigger issues.
part of it is, I think, that the bigger issues are just so big and we feel helpless to do something about it. But a straw - I can do something about. I can carry my own - as with spoon and fork - and not need to use one more piece of disposable.
Agreed that they are small steps - but they do make a person feel in power - and with that feeling might come the confidence to tackle the bigger issues.
The ghost nets have been a huge issue for a long time. But I disagree with the article saying that it is most of the pollution.
I go to the beach here and we have lots of awareness campaigns and regular cleanups - still, I find bags full of plastic. Bags, bottles, caps - you name it. By putting it all on the fishing industry - that is too easy.
Every plastic bag I don't use multiplied by millions doing the same thing is a big impact.
In the end, I can only control what I am doing - and that barely LOL