Our Planet - It Is The Only One We Have

I have stated before, and herby restate, that because of a lack of expressed interest in my postings on my blog I have ceased writing for that venue, until and unless I receive a reasonable number of responses indicating an interest in my continuing. 

However, since I continue to write for other venues from time to time, I will continue to post those on my blog.

On April 21, I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Record (The Fort Lee Suburbanite no longer appears to be interested in publishing Letters to the Editor). It was published in the April 23, 2014 edition.

The letter appeared under the Headline “Stop Using Plastic Bags” and reads as follows:

I find it appalling to find that most people take their purchases in plastic bags, rather then using reusable canvas bags. It appears they mean well, because every merchant offers reusable canvas bags and many buy them. But it appears that most people seem content with having bought such bags, even though they then fail to use them.

Why using reusable canvas bags is so is hard is difficult to contemplate. Most people use their cars when doing their shopping and it is the easiest thing in the world to keep some canvas bags in the car and take them with them when they shop. That is what I do.

Do they not realize what enormous damage they are doing to our environment? What happens to these hundreds, indeed thousands, and most likely millions of these bags? According to National Geographic there are “somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags … consumed worldwide each year”. We see them hanging from trees where they pollute our visual environment. But worse they end up in our landfills, where unlike other garbage they do not decompose and remain there unto eternity. And still worse they end up in our streams and in our oceans where dolphins, and other creatures of the sea get tangled in them, or imbibe them and die a horrible death.

National Geographic also informs us that “Plastic bag litter has become such an environmental nuisance and eyesore that Ireland, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, and Bangladesh have heavily taxed the totes or banned their use outright. Several other regions, including England and some U.S. cities, are considering similar actions.”

It is time for our state and/or our nation to do the same.

Comments, questions, or corrections, are welcome and will be responded to, but will only be published at my discretion.