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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 1/23/22

All Plastics Cause Climate Change

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Without an unprecedented reversal of our blase' use of fossil fuels, humans have literally everything to lose with climate change. "Megafires" are increasing in frequency in the US. Last year, wildfires burned a record 10 million acres in the west, more than 15,000 square miles! And this year promises to be far worse as a "Heat Dome" caused an early, hotter and drier heat wave that buckled highways and melted power lines along the West Coast as far north as British Columbia, with temperatures reaching 122ËšF (50ËšC). Weather fluctuations now resemble deranged washing machines, skittering across the world, randomly dispersing unprecedented magnitudes of fire, ice, water and violent winds. After a majority was vaccinated for Covid-19, their pent-up emotional energies were freed and now they're all getting high on greenhouse gasses - flying in jets and going on road trips. But our pursuit of a care-free lifestyle with plastics is just as much of a flagrant use of fossil fuels as flying or driving motor vehicles.

This article focuses primarily on plastics as a cause of climate change. Because plastics are made of more than 99% fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal - every part of their existence contributes to climate change. From their extraction, transportation, cracking and production to combustion and disposal, every part of their existence contributes to climate change by emitting greenhouse gasses.

Plastics began modestly in 1862 when John Wesley Hyatt invented the first synthetic polymer that contained no molecules found in nature. But it wasn't until more than 80 years later, after WW2, that plastic production spread rapidly throughout the world, with increases that paralleled increases in fossil fuel production, leading to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gasses and ultimately to climate change. Societal acceptance of plastics increased to the point today where most products are either reliant on synthetic polymers and plastics or made of them. Examples are transportation, building construction, interior finishes and furniture, clothing, healthcare and agriculture - both organic and conventional.

Extremely few people question how plastic is made, where it comes from or where it goes after it's not wanted. And equally, few people link it to our current plight of climate change and all it piles on us.

But We Need Plastics?

After writing about plastics since the early 1990s, I'm deeply troubled by scientists and activists who state publicly that "we need plastic." One such scientist speaking recently at an international conference in Amsterdam proclaimed that plastics saved the life of a relative's newborn child. On a short-term and personal basis, that's understandable, but it's more of an emotional claim than the logical, scientific statement that one expects from a scientist. And one expects much, much more from that particular scientist, who once spoke and wrote widely on endocrine disruptors.

Fossil fuels are vilified as a cause of climate change. Similarly, plastics must be rejected because they account for a significant amount of all fossil fuels produced. To state the obvious, our long-term existence is in severe jeopardy as a result of all plastics. They facilitate a lifestyle in which we ignore that they are existential threats to our own lives and all that supports us.

The advantages of plastics - durability, low weight, ease in forming and relative low cost - are mere temptations distracting our reasoning from the myriad of highly negative effects they've burdened us with. The durability of plastic is highly overrated, as its low cost fails to account for the environmental damage it causes for centuries after its production. Even without mentioning the effects of climate change, the societal costs of plastics put on us by the producing corporations are overwhelming.

But its pià ¨ce de re'sistance is Climate Change!

Acceptance of plastic products is based on extremely disingenuous corporate advice and advertising that has thoroughly beguiled us into believing they're safe. As corporations have always been laser-focused on profit, they withhold vital facts and lie about plastics. Because the industry knows or should have known about those innumerable lies and political manipulations, most of what they state should be disbelieved. They regularly bait and switch chemicals that are found to be more toxic than the ones replaced. The same goes for greenhouse gasses. A case in point is refrigerants such as CFCs, which were replaced by HFCs, later to be found to be worse. Pesticides are another example.

But just know that plastics cannot be made nontoxic; cannot be recycled; cannot be removed from where they've intruded; have contaminated all possible spaces on Earth, and possibly worse; they emit greenhouse gasses that increase climate change. I'm baffled by human acceptance of such a substance that is overwhelmingly negative and a bona fide existential threat to all life. Not just one or even hundreds of thousands, but all life on Earth.

From the moment of extraction, through production, use and disposal, plastic emits greenhouse gasses. All uses of fossil fuels contribute to climate change, whether leaked into the atmosphere, burned, heated, mixed or formed into plastics, pesticides, lubricants or even pharmaceuticals, beauty products and paints! Plastics account for a significant amount of all fossil fuel use. And that should no longer be ignored.

In the last 70 years, there's been an explosive increase in plastic production. And it's poised to increase even more sharply in this decade. Thus, pushing greenhouse gasses yet higher. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is just one of many greenhouse gases. If its global emissions were halted today, it would take several hundred years before the majority of human emissions were removed from the atmosphere. Several other greenhouse gasses have increased rapidly, including methane, and nitrous oxide. It's about much more than just CO2 !

Coal Gas & Oil

Coal, gas and oil are the materials that make plastics. Natural gas plays a larger role in US plastics production than oil because of its abundance there. Europe relies more on oil and China more on coal.

As a group, polyethylene has the largest production in the U.S., mostly for packaging - plastic bags, wrap, moisture barriers, coatings of drink boxes and a lot more. Polyethylene also contributes the most plastic waste in the U.S. It's made from ethylene (C2H4), another part of natural gas that is also a greenhouse gas. Sixty percent of all ethylene manufactured each year becomes one of many types of polyethylene plastic. The energy used to produce ethylene comes from more natural gas, oil, or even coal-fired plants. According to an article in the journal Science, natural gas emissions from the U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain are about 60% higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inventory estimate.

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Paul Goettlich has researched and written about environmental toxicants since 1993, first with plastics and pesticides. Other topics include organic farming, GMOs, nuclear power generation, depleted uranium (DU) and more. He's been a board (more...)
 

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All Plastics Cause Climate Change

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