You know paper straws were introduced to limit littering? We simply don’t need that much single use plastics in the environment.
It’s funny how people keep complaining they were forced to do this one little thing to help stop climate change that was never even supposed to stop it.
“The ultra rich did nothing while I bitched about every policy that would somehow affect me. So unfair!”
Also, it’s not about the straws per se - it’s about that us everyday normies are being asked to change our ways to combat climate change and I’m totally in favor of that. We have to be more aware of our ways and where we can switch our behaviours to combat climate change.
But all it needs is an ultra rich dude flying around in his private jet or spend weeks on his yacht driving around and all our efforts become meaningless.
Change the little guy, for sure - but also grab the rich fucks by their balls as well. And so far nothing like that is happening.
Plastic anything is dumb and straws in general are too (minus for the elderly, disabled etc). Truly I don’t think the majority of people bringing it up really care that much about straws and more so about the inequality and damage caused by a class out of control flying jets like cars expecting everyone else to carry the burden, however that may manifest.
Yes but if people bitch that much about straws imagine how much they would bitch if you tried to do anything meaningful like limit beef consumption or long distance flying. If you even mention anything like that as a recommendation (“experts say eating more than 10kg of beef per day is not sustainable”) people freak out (“they want us to eat bugs!!!1”).
I get it that people expect the rich to sacrifice first but the sad fact is they have the real power and can fight any attempts to limit their emissions. NY mentioned taxing private jets and they immediately came up with plans to move to chartering and change residency. You tax them in NY and they escape to stupid Texas because for them it’s easy. So people basically say “we’re not going to agree to anything that affects us until you achieve the impossible task of completely changing the entire system” and nothing gets done. We have been stuck in this “all or nothing” standoff for decades and it looks like we will be stuck until everything collapses.
I don’t think people are limited to bitching about one thing at a time, so we definitely shouldn’t hold back the discussion of unsustainable meat production until they’re done bitching about straws.
It’s not about how many things people bitch about. It’s about the pushback any environmental policy is facing from people. If people bitch for years and years about straws imagine how will they react to something significant like limiting beef. Those grievances are what populists use to gain power. If you push too hard people will vote you out and revert all progress (like Trump). So we’re stuck because no one is willing to sacrifice anything and you can’t really force anyone.
In my opinion that’s a band aid that has to come off.
We shouldn’t take the high road to avoid backlash. The populists are going to go lower regardless of where we set the bar. This is how it has already gotten so low that we’re even debating straws.
We should set the bar much much higher, so they can bitch and moan about hundreds of issues instead of finding unity in single issues like straws.
You know paper straws were introduced to limit littering? We simply don’t need that much single use plastics in the environment.
It’s funny how people keep complaining they were forced to do this one little thing to help stop climate change that was never even supposed to stop it.
“The ultra rich did nothing while I bitched about every policy that would somehow affect me. So unfair!”
Did you know that paper straws were in use decades or more before plastic straws were invented. The plastic ones really weren’t used until the 80s.
It was obviously a cynical joke.
Also, it’s not about the straws per se - it’s about that us everyday normies are being asked to change our ways to combat climate change and I’m totally in favor of that. We have to be more aware of our ways and where we can switch our behaviours to combat climate change.
But all it needs is an ultra rich dude flying around in his private jet or spend weeks on his yacht driving around and all our efforts become meaningless.
Change the little guy, for sure - but also grab the rich fucks by their balls as well. And so far nothing like that is happening.
Plastic anything is dumb and straws in general are too (minus for the elderly, disabled etc). Truly I don’t think the majority of people bringing it up really care that much about straws and more so about the inequality and damage caused by a class out of control flying jets like cars expecting everyone else to carry the burden, however that may manifest.
Yes but if people bitch that much about straws imagine how much they would bitch if you tried to do anything meaningful like limit beef consumption or long distance flying. If you even mention anything like that as a recommendation (“experts say eating more than 10kg of beef per day is not sustainable”) people freak out (“they want us to eat bugs!!!1”).
I get it that people expect the rich to sacrifice first but the sad fact is they have the real power and can fight any attempts to limit their emissions. NY mentioned taxing private jets and they immediately came up with plans to move to chartering and change residency. You tax them in NY and they escape to stupid Texas because for them it’s easy. So people basically say “we’re not going to agree to anything that affects us until you achieve the impossible task of completely changing the entire system” and nothing gets done. We have been stuck in this “all or nothing” standoff for decades and it looks like we will be stuck until everything collapses.
I don’t think people are limited to bitching about one thing at a time, so we definitely shouldn’t hold back the discussion of unsustainable meat production until they’re done bitching about straws.
It’s not about how many things people bitch about. It’s about the pushback any environmental policy is facing from people. If people bitch for years and years about straws imagine how will they react to something significant like limiting beef. Those grievances are what populists use to gain power. If you push too hard people will vote you out and revert all progress (like Trump). So we’re stuck because no one is willing to sacrifice anything and you can’t really force anyone.
In my opinion that’s a band aid that has to come off.
We shouldn’t take the high road to avoid backlash. The populists are going to go lower regardless of where we set the bar. This is how it has already gotten so low that we’re even debating straws.
We should set the bar much much higher, so they can bitch and moan about hundreds of issues instead of finding unity in single issues like straws.
I’m all for it but unfortunately majority of people would vote out any politician that proposes something like that. And politicians know it.
why have straws at all? why have cups? let’s go back to a time when we used clay cups and bowls.
I prefer my cherry garcia mt dew megawatt slushie the way nature intended it, from the teat of a goat into a stoneware mug.