.
Plastic is problematic for many reasons.

First, it's made from oil, which might well be usable in other ways in the future that we haven't even thought of yet, but we're running through at a breakneck pace.
Second, it doesn't biodegrade.
Third, it's polluting our oceans and killing them. Here is some important recent information about the garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean, along with their effects.

In short, we need to:

• Discontinue using nonbiodegradable plastic, and switch to other materials for our bags, our products, and our drinking/storage vessels.
• Gather up all of the plastic on land and store it safely, or put it to good use where it won't go missing in the ocean, killing untolled wildlife populations.
• Design some type of swimming robots that can identify and capture plastic in our oceans, and return it back to land.
• Educate everybody about plastics, and find new ways of living where plastic plays a dramatically different role in our lives.

lyrics:
"Tried to save the trees
Bought a plastic bag
The bottom fell out
It was a piece of crap"
From Piece of Crap, by Neil Young

colors: color of clear plastic 6-pack can ring containers. (I always cut them up so they don't get caught on the birds' necks if they get into the wild, but really that's nowhere near enough.)


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: economics, environment, indifferent corporations, interconnected web, paradigm shift