GenXer here. What drives me nuts is that climate change was taught to me as scientific fact in year 9, back in the early 80s.
The science was clear but collectively every government said “well, I’ll be dead by then so why should we care now”.
Governments got off their collective assess and did something about the ozone layer and acid rain to the point that the problem has largely been corrected. Unfortunately, although climate change and now micro plastics get a lot of media attention, governments have since stopped trying to actually do something about it.
There is a big difference between the ozone layer, acid rain and climate change.
Ozone: Required the move to different refrigerant gasses and implement measures to stop old cfc’s being accidentally released.
acid rain: Required the use of low sulfur fuels.
While both were costly they were minor in comparison to climate change emissions.
The problems were incidental to the industries involved and not a something that had to happen for the industry to function.
And the big one, they industries that were required to change could profit from the change.
The complete opposite for co2 emissions.
There is no way to burn coal or oil without producing co2. So there was zero incentive from the companies and countries that profit from these industries to even look at solutions . Let alone implement them.
I recently read a study about micro plastics that fairly well substantiates tires as their most of prolific source.
Think the media is gonna run with that? What would be seen as an attack on car culture itself, fuck the science or concerns of health effects. Micro plastics in the clouds, in the Arctic, in the placenta…
I’m not holding my breath.
