Last year I was discussing environmental issues with a senior industrialist in Israel and he was very worked up about one particular problem - he saw a picture of some turtles choking on plastic straws. He wanted to ban the use of these straws and then set up a production line making paper versions. He mentioned that every year we consume tens of millions of plastic straws and if we stopped using them, this would be in a major environmental contribution.
I was perplexed by his sincerity because I think this particular cause is not important. The reason why poor turtles are choking on plastic straws is mainly because certain countries are dumping their waste into the oceans. If we stopped that we would overcome this problem.
This issue shows the confusion between environment and climate change. Climate change action is about reducing greenhouse gases. In our battle against climate change we need to incorporate new technologies systems and methods which emit less gases like CO2 and methane.
Generally, this challenge is separate and rarely overlaps with straight environmental issues. Here are a couple of examples.
We regulate the amount of fine particles emitted from coal and gas power stations. This saves many lives . This has little to do with climate change.
We are filling the oceans with plastics and rubbish. I know we shouldn’t. This can be stopped by international regulations. This has little to with climate change.
True there are fewer natural habitats and less bio-diversity . These are caused by population growth and global warming. Population growth one can do little about, but global warming is solved by reducing carbon which improves bio-diversity – it is that way round.
So next time you speak to your green friends ask them this – isn’t climate change more important that local environment issues? If so, let’s prioritise that and let the turtles wait.
#turtles
#plasticstraws
#biodiversity
