New Water Bottling Plant in Hilo Proposed

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

why I am not optimistic about mankind's future on this planet.

The winner of this year's Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Year. - - plastic (the losers, us):

90.5%, the amount of plastic that has never been recycled.

Let’s take a closer look at this year’s winning statistic. About 90.5% of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste produced since mass production began about 60 years ago is now lying around our planet in landfills and oceans or has been incinerated. If we don’t change our ways, by 2050, there will be about 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste.

In fact, if you could monetize all of the plastic trash clogging up our environment–including the 12% that is incinerated–you could buy some of the world’s biggest businesses.

Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Exxon, GM, AT&T, Facebook, Bank of America, Visa, Intel, Home Depot, HSBC, Boeing, Citigroup, Anheuser-Busch, all the NFL teams, all the MLB teams and all the Premier League Football teams.

In other words, if someone could collect and recycle all the unrecycled plastic on Earth, this person would be richer than any individual on the planet.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90287668/if-...-buy-apple


If only we had paid more attention to the movies we watched. From The Graduate, released in 1967:
Mr. Maguire: I want to say one word to you, Benjamin. Just one word.
Benjamin Braddock: Yes, sir.
Mr. Maguire: Are you listening?
Benjamin Braddock: Yes, I am.
Mr. Maguire: Plastics.

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

This back and forth is precisely why I am not optimistic about mankind's future on this planet.

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It's called "debate".

When it goes just in one direction, well, that's the time to start worrying.

Speaking Truth to Lies / Facts to Ignorance

[Rob Tucker]

It is my opinion that the time for debating is frankly over... and that now is indeed time to start worrying and acting. We (all of us) have polluted the air, polluted the water, polluted the land and are now entering a period where lives and livelihoods are being lost. Hawaii itself is a favored spot to watch things get worse.... and maybe, hopefully, whistfully better.


If this topic runs off into national politics and insults again.... people will start taking Punaweb vacations.

[Guest]

Frankly, the U.S. has done a great deal, and more than anyone else, in this regards. Air Pollution levels are way down from peak, water pollution is down from peak. It's time for other nations to take action to curb their pollution. Modern cars produce almost no emissions, ditto large trucks. Even ships in the harbor have clean-air standards.

Want an idea - stop eating fish except farmed. Fishing puts tremendous pressure on fish-stocks, and leaves all sorts of debris. Re-use your plastic grocery bags, Trade in your old junker for a modern car. If you can't afford it, up your game until you can. I read a statistic once that old cars produce as much pollution as a dozen or so new cards.

Speaking Truth to Lies / Facts to Ignorance

[Obie]

A link to pictures of the last ever cleanup in Kapoho.Not many water bottles or micro plastic.Lots of mega nets.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vyNQg5LWe1rBnHsh9

You can click on the photo to zoom in.A couple of truckloads had already been hauled away.The nets were too heavy to lift.

[terracore]

"It is my opinion that the time for debating is frankly over... and that now is indeed time to start worrying and acting."

I don't remember bottled water even being for sale in the 1970's. Only pretentious foreign stuff that cost more than beer. We were rationing and lining up for gasoline. Such was the state of the economy.

Those times are coming back sooner than most people think, and in a lot of ways the environment is going to be the winner. My parents would have literally me laughed out of the store if I told them I wanted them to buy me bottled water. That's what drinking fountains were for. And none of us died of dehydration. In a lot of ways you can think of bottled water as a symbol of the excesses of society.

eta: grammar/ clarity

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Frankly, the U.S. has done a great deal... Air Pollution levels are way down from peak,

They were down, not any more:

CO2 Emissions Reached an All-Time High in 2018
The uptick follows several years of relatively flat emissions, underscoring the urgency of climate action
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...h-in-2018/

[Obie]

The emissions in the US were down.China was way up and was part of the cause of the rise.

We can put in a carbon tax and raise the price of gas and drive our emissions down and the world's will still go up.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

U.S. carbon emissions increased 3.4 percent in 2018
The 2018 increase is the second largest in the last two decades and follows three years of declining emissions.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/01...546956974/

[Rob Tucker]

Oh my. The point is completely missed.