Plastic Fiasco Shows Need for EPA of Earth
December 10, 2024
by William P. Meyers

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Time to Dump the Plastic Fantastic Lover

The overproduction of plastic and the failure to properly dispose of (recycle) plastic items is a well-known global problem. Plastic litter accumulates in ocean areas remote from land. Microplastics accumulate in soil, water, animals, and human beings. Plastic can include a wide variety of chemical substances that are poisonous to wildlife and humans. Environmentalists agree we should minimize and regulate their use. But there is not a mechanism for that.

We just saw another well-intended round of negotiations at the Intergovernmental Committee Meeting on Plastic Pollution fail to deliver any meaningful result. They gathered at Busan, Korea in November 2024, representing 170 nations. Most agreed that plastic pollution is bad. But many are plastic producers and all are plastic users. It is like asking a gang of crooks to stop stealing. How will they make their living? We all agree crime is not the best, but . . .

The world is broken. The international governance system is broken. Humanity is broken. Ecosystems are breaking down, we are sinking into the Slow Motion Apocalypse. Plastics are just part of the problem.

Many young people today do not remember the pre-plastic world. No one alive today does: plastics evolved in a gradual process, but the first modern plastic was Bakelite, invented in 1907. Even when I was a child, in the 1960s, plastic was not very common. Toys were beginning to be plastic. Most bottles were still glass. Only a few foods were packed in plastic. But as the 60s turned into the 70s and 80s, plastic became more common. Plastic bottles, bags, water pipes, clothing: it was the wave of the future. Plastic was cheap and light, less likely to break, less expensive to ship.

At the same time the world's population exploded. Multiply any small problem by a billion and you have a big problem. In 1950, at the beginning of the plastic era, there were about 2.5 billion people in the world. Now there are 8 billion. So toss an empty plastic bottle into the street (instead of into a garbage can or recycling), that does not seem like much harm, but if everyone does it everyday, the street fills with plastic. Even when placed in garbage, mountains of plastic are formed. And plastic does not recycle well, partly because there are so many kinds of it, and it is cheaper to make new plastic from petroleum. As the plastic items break down into bits they enter the soil and water, their chemicals can leach out, the smaller particles are consumed by animals and enter the food chain. But we can also get plastic in human stomachs from the plastic bottles and food containers we drink and eat out of.

The problem has been around for decades now, but little has been done about it. There is some recycling, of course. But it turns out that a lot of recycling is just pretend, much of the plastic is just shipped to poor nations and dumped.

Under the umbrella of the United Nations, today's nation-states have been getting together to try to slow down the tidal wave of plastic encapsulating the earth. The process did not get started until 2022, but it was supposed to be finished this year. Surprise, surprise, 170 nations had problems coming to an agreement. Everyone, or most nations, wanted an agreement that would burden them least. The petroleum producing nations did not want limits on production of petroleum. The plastic producers did not want limits on the kinds or quantities of plastics they produce, they wanted better recycling and disposal. Fossil fuel and chemical company lobbyists outnumbered government delegates, though they did not have a vote. On the plus side the international food brands (Nestle, Coca-Cola, Unilever, etc.) wanted a solution so they could go on peddling their products bottled and wrapped in plastic.

Observers said that 100 or so of the nations present could have come to an agreement. But they could not have enforced it on the 30 nay sayers, mostly oil-producing nations. So a consensus pathway was sought. And surprise, they failed to reach consensus. There was no agreement at all, not even a compromise one. But, don't despair, they will meet again. They all get to fly to meetings, stay in nice hotels, and isn't the carbon dioxide created by their air travel a small price to pay?

My previous blog, War Lord World, described the best way to see the international situation: nations, however governed, are essentially like war lords. Sometimes a group of war lords will form a coalition, or come to an agreement, or stop fighting for a few years. But that is not a substitute for a central government.

The failure of the U.N. and the world to stop global warming, stop plastic and other forms of pollution, and provide birth control so that the world's population can get back to a sustainable level (See Wonderful World of One Billion) illuminates the real problem, and the real solution.

We need a Government of Earth.

We need to start moving to that goal immediately, which is why people are rallying around a provisional Government of Earth. There are several paths that might achieve this, including strengthening the U.N.

We can't have just any Government of Earth. The central point of the government must be protecting and restoring the global ecosystem. The most important arm of the Government of Earth would be its global Environmental Protection Agency. Old-fashioned nations would retain many powers, but they had better jump when the global EPA says jump. And by jumping we mean seriously and quickly cutting fossil fuel production, among other protective acts.

Would you like a plastic bag to take that idea home in? Oh, good, you brought your reusable cloth bag.