wicked thread
was reading an article about an upcoming int'l conference in the Jamaican Gleaner yesterday
Gleaner article here
JA has been on this pretty heavily since 2022, with lots of plans for 2024. not a lot of faith in the current gov but they have followed through on what they've promised thus far in terms of this issue. lots of plastics banned with more set for this year. along with education to the youth about WHY this is important. a lot of gov enviro-oriented policies are introduced formally in schools for that reason
but you're right that shit from other countries can cross oceans and end up on other nation's shores so it can't be a unilateral effort by any one country
plastics are def not inert, they release chemicals as they degrade (not the same as bio-degrade) that are toxic to humans, animals, sea life and ecosystems. they're even implicated in killing the coral reefs (aka the lungs of the ocean)
aside from that, discarded plastics kill marine life overtly (that image of the turtle with the bag wrapped around it is spot on, fish and birds etc too) and are sometimes the cause of landslides that kill people in the hills during rainy season
normal drainage routes get clogged up with crap and the water diverts, to sometimes devastating effect. same deal with flooding on the lands below
"
Countries will have an opportunity to progress work on a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution at the upcoming Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), to be held at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Canada, later this month."
the report from 2023 that will be the foundation of the conference is pretty long so not gonna post it all here, it's all in the link for anyone interested
ya gotta wonder how long people will keep treating the planet we rely on as a garbage dump for our needless waste. it's not the planet we need to save, nature can exist in any form. it's simply a matter of whether it's hospitable for us and the species we share it with
loved your pic showing water improvement. proof things can change
until then...
happy Earth day to you. we as a global community def still got lots to do