My problem with this thread is that it isn't corporations that are destroying our environment. Corporations are just the scapegoat. The problem is us. People are the problem. If you are concerned about the environment, don't blame scapegoats, do something about it. Plant trees. Vote against politicans who are anti environment. recycle. organize. Promote science education. pick up trash on the beach. Promote awareness. Vote. Get involved. The current political class that controls the US is the most anti environment government in our history. Do something about it. Vote. Make your vote count.
People here in Florida are screaming "where are the environment agencies" in response to some very bad algae blooms.
The people here in Florida have exactly the "environment agencies" for which they voted. And they will do it again this fall.
The scientists know exactly what needs to be done to fix our water quality problems. But the solutions hurt the profits of a handful of huge groups so the corporations block any meaningful solutions. This is why on the national level we have Scott Pruitt and his successor gutting the Chesapeake Bay Program and reversing course on regulating "Waters of the United States". Farm Bureau, Energy sector, and huge construction firms put him there to do that and they convinced the voters that it was enhancing their freedom by getting "big government" out of the way.
The biggest multinationals exist to maximize profit. That means the dumping of negative externalities on the commons benefits them. Since this tiny fraction of the population has all of the money and their is no check on their use of that money for "political speech" then they get to call the shots. No grass roots anything will make a dent in their behavior.
Planting a tree or picking up trash is a worthless symbol and won't change anything. You think your tree is going to offset the nitrogen and phosphorus running off all the chem-lawns? You think picking up a cigarette butt is going to help anything when there's a fucking red tide and simultaneous cyanobacteria bloom that has fish, crustaceans, and mammals washing up dead in staggering numbers?
Yeah, you have to vote to get the regulation in place that will make a significant change in pollution.
Hell, I think all the media attention to plastic is just a fucking distraction right now. Plastic pollution is bad, yes. But plastic isn't smothering the lagoon behind my house. We converted our entire landscape into one that doesn't get any pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, or irrigation. Big deal, none of my neighbors have. They fertilize and irrigate right through the wet season. They think that the PSAs about nutrient pollution are libtard bullshit because that is what the media bought and paid for by Heatland Institute and Heritage Foundation tells them.
Individuals maximize rational self interest in short term economic decision making. The odd do-gooder doesn't save the commons. Heartland Institute and Heritage Foundation have figured out the messaging that they need to exploit this aspect of human nature. We don't have less acid rain today in the northeastern US because the industries causing it voluntarily reduced sulfur emissions or because automakers voluntarily figured out how to reduce NOx from cars. No, we had politicians that forced Cap and Trade for sulfur onto polluters and that forced emissions standards onto the auto industry. Politicians that would do such a thing would never get elected in 2018 and that isn't because people don't care about clean are or clean water. It is because the way politics is financed makes it impossible.
