I think this focus on plastics is actually harmful to the environment. The crucial issue of our time is climate change. Unless we can get climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, trying to reduce plastic is sweeping the deck of the Titanic.

The biggest barrier to climate change is convincing people to act. All this talk about plastic just consumes bandwidth.

In addition, this reinforces the the worse fears about environmentalists.

1. Many times the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean are exaggerated. There is not a huge island made of plastic floating in the ocean.

2. The amount of plastic that a western first world country contributes through plastic straws is basically a rounding error.

3. Plastic straw bans inconvenience the average person while not being a very efficacious way to reduce overall global plastic consumption.

Many people fear that if they give governments the mandate to regulate carbon, the government will pass a bunch of regulations that will just inconvenience them but not actually help with climate change in any meaningful way.