Recent comments

I am responding to a citizen who is worried that a New York City ban on plastic bags will cause distress: "What am I supposed to use for household garbage and kitty litter?" My response is to do what I and many environmentalists do. I use paper grocery bags to line my waste baskets and then they go into the outside garbage bin. Soiled kitty litter also goes into a paper grocery bag and then into the outside garbage bin. Also, there are companies that manufacture large heavy-duty paper bags for the garbage bin, and there could be incentives for more companies to do so. The world existed for centuries before the invention of plastic. In my lifetime, modern society has allowed plastics to take over the world, with the possibility of destroying our world. This needs to stop.

The issue is the Koch Network has created an outsized influence on "the game the government creates", by supporting voter suppression, gerrymandering, unlimited political funding, all of which are done deceptively, to insulate and magnify their undue influence. This flies in the face of the one person, one vote democratic principle. These activities do not produce economic freedom for all, only a relatively few billionaires. Mainly it's the largest corporations or privately held companies, who share disproportionately in the benefits, of which 80+% are owned by the .01-1%. Having little corporate liability more than doubles or triples some of these subsidies, which also function as unfunded, taxpayer, liabilities for the rest of us. CC is a good example. The human and economic costs of climate change expose us to human health hazards, and an existential threat to our economy, government, species, and democracy. No one would vote for these dire consequences.